Ghostty is a cross-platform terminal emulator. Ghostty allows control characters such as 0x03 (Ctrl+C) in pasted and dropped text. These can be used to execute arbitrary commands in some shell environments. This attack requires an attacker to convince the user to copy and paste or drag and drop malicious text. The attack requires user interaction to be triggered, but the dangerous characters are invisible in most GUI environments so it isn't trivially detected, especially if the string contents are complex. Fixed in Ghostty v1.3.0.
PUBLISHED5.2CWE-78
Ghostty affected by arbitrary command execution via control characters in paste and drag-and-drop operations
Problem type
Affected products
ghostty-org
ghostty
< 1.3.0 - AFFECTED
References
https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/security/advisories/GHSA-4jxv-xgrp-5m3r
https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/security/advisories/GHSA-4jxv-xgrp-5m3r
https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/pull/10746
https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/pull/10746
https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/commit/fe7427ed2a1a02aef85495b384cfb8f11ee5efc9
https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/commit/fe7427ed2a1a02aef85495b384cfb8f11ee5efc9
JSON source
https://cveawg.mitre.org/api/cve/CVE-2026-26982Click to expand
{
"dataType": "CVE_RECORD",
"dataVersion": "5.2",
"cveMetadata": {
"cveId": "CVE-2026-26982",
"assignerOrgId": "a0819718-46f1-4df5-94e2-005712e83aaa",
"assignerShortName": "GitHub_M",
"dateUpdated": "2026-03-09T21:14:27.693Z",
"dateReserved": "2026-02-17T01:41:24.605Z",
"datePublished": "2026-03-09T21:14:27.693Z",
"state": "PUBLISHED"
},
"containers": {
"cna": {
"providerMetadata": {
"orgId": "a0819718-46f1-4df5-94e2-005712e83aaa",
"shortName": "GitHub_M",
"dateUpdated": "2026-03-09T21:14:27.693Z"
},
"title": "Ghostty affected by arbitrary command execution via control characters in paste and drag-and-drop operations",
"descriptions": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "Ghostty is a cross-platform terminal emulator. Ghostty allows control characters such as 0x03 (Ctrl+C) in pasted and dropped text. These can be used to execute arbitrary commands in some shell environments. This attack requires an attacker to convince the user to copy and paste or drag and drop malicious text. The attack requires user interaction to be triggered, but the dangerous characters are invisible in most GUI environments so it isn't trivially detected, especially if the string contents are complex. Fixed in Ghostty v1.3.0."
}
],
"affected": [
{
"vendor": "ghostty-org",
"product": "ghostty",
"versions": [
{
"version": "< 1.3.0",
"status": "affected"
}
]
}
],
"problemTypes": [
{
"descriptions": [
{
"lang": "en",
"description": "CWE-78: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')",
"cweId": "CWE-78",
"type": "CWE"
}
]
}
],
"references": [
{
"url": "https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/security/advisories/GHSA-4jxv-xgrp-5m3r",
"name": "https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/security/advisories/GHSA-4jxv-xgrp-5m3r",
"tags": [
"x_refsource_CONFIRM"
]
},
{
"url": "https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/pull/10746",
"name": "https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/pull/10746",
"tags": [
"x_refsource_MISC"
]
},
{
"url": "https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/commit/fe7427ed2a1a02aef85495b384cfb8f11ee5efc9",
"name": "https://github.com/ghostty-org/ghostty/commit/fe7427ed2a1a02aef85495b384cfb8f11ee5efc9",
"tags": [
"x_refsource_MISC"
]
}
],
"metrics": [
{
"cvssV3_1": {
"version": "3.1",
"vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L",
"attackVector": "NETWORK",
"attackComplexity": "LOW",
"privilegesRequired": "NONE",
"userInteraction": "REQUIRED",
"scope": "UNCHANGED",
"confidentialityImpact": "LOW",
"integrityImpact": "LOW",
"availabilityImpact": "LOW",
"baseScore": 6.3,
"baseSeverity": "MEDIUM"
}
}
]
}
}
}