dbcve.org
Command InjectionWeakness · CWE-77

CVE-2025-29509

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-05-09
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
95/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Jan v0.5.14 and before is vulnerable to remote code execution (RCE) when the user clicks on a rendered link in the conversation, due to opening external website in the app and the exposure of electronAPI, with a lack of filtering of URL when calling shell.openExternal().

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Jan (an Electron-based AI chat application) vulnerable to RCE via malicious links in conversations. The app uses electron's shell.openExternal() to open URLs without validating/sanitizing them, and exposes the electronAPI to the renderer process. When users click crafted links, attackers can leverage the exposed API or shell.openExternal() to execute arbitrary code.

MitigationImplement strict URL allowlist filtering before passing to shell.openExternal(), remove or properly sandbox the exposed electronAPI, and consider using Electron's webContents.setWindowOpenHandler for safer link handling.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Locate Jan installation and version
    Check the installed version of Jan. On Windows: look in %APPDATA%/jan or the installation directory for a version file or check the app's About section. On macOS: check /Applications/Jan.app or ~/Applications/Jan. Look for a version identifier in package.json, or within the app's resources.
    Affected if The installed version falls within the affected range (if known) or is any version prior to the patched release.
  2. Inspect preload script for exposed electronAPI
    Navigate to the app's resources folder. Locate the preload script (commonly named preload.js or similar). Search for code that exposes nodeIntegration, contextBridge, or directly exposes the electronAPI to the renderer process (e.g., exposing 'shell' or 'process' objects).
    Affected if The preload script contains code that exposes sensitive Electron APIs (like shell, process, or custom electronAPI) directly to the renderer without proper sandboxing or context isolation.
  3. Check main process for shell.openExternal usage
    In the app's main process JavaScript files (e.g., main.js, index.js), search for invocations of shell.openExternal(). Examine the code that passes URLs to this function.
    Affected if shell.openExternal() is called with user-supplied URLs (from conversation links, messages, or user input) without prior validation, sanitization, or allowlist filtering.
  4. Verify URL validation logic exists
    Search the codebase (main process files) for any URL validation, sanitization, or allowlist filtering logic that occurs before shell.openExternal() calls. Look for regex patterns, domain allowlists, or validation functions.
    Affected if No URL validation, allowlist, or sanitization logic is found before URLs are passed to shell.openExternal(), or the validation is insufficient (e.g., only checks for http/https prefixes without domain filtering).

A user is affected if they run a vulnerable version of Jan where the electronAPI is exposed to the renderer and shell.openExternal() is used to open URLs from conversations without strict URL validation or allowlist filtering.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement strict URL allowlist filtering before passing to shell.openExternal(), remove or properly sandbox the exposed electronAPI, and consider using Electron's webContents.setWindowOpenHandler for safer link handling.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing3.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
14.0 hours of engineering $2,490
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-29509 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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