CVE-2026-42851
Kitty · Kitty Terminal
The Kitty GPU-based terminal emulator contains a security vulnerability that may allow for unauthorized system interaction.
Executive summary
The Kitty terminal emulator is susceptible to a vulnerability that could allow for unauthorized system interaction or privilege escalation.
Vulnerability
This is a vulnerability within the Kitty terminal emulator, which is a cross-platform GPU-based terminal. Further details regarding the specific attack vector remain pending, but the nature of terminal emulation flaws often involves input sanitization issues that can lead to command execution.
Business impact
With a CVSS score of 7.8 (High), this vulnerability represents a significant risk to the security of the host workstation. Successful exploitation could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the user running the terminal, leading to local system compromise.
Remediation
Immediate Action: Apply security updates for the Kitty terminal as soon as they are made available by the maintainers.
Proactive Monitoring: Monitor workstation process logs for unusual command-line activity or unexpected child processes spawned by the terminal.
Compensating Controls: Limit the execution of untrusted scripts or commands within the terminal environment to reduce the attack surface.
Exploitation status
Public Exploit Available: false
Analyst recommendation
Users and administrators should monitor the official Kitty project releases for patches. Given the potential for command execution, the software should be updated as soon as a fix is released.