CursorApplication · Anysphere

CVE-2026-22708

CRITICAL · 9.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-01-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 2.3 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click

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
Cursor is a code editor built for programming with AI. Prior to 2.3, hen the Cursor Agent is running in Auto-Run Mode with Allowlist mode enabled, certain shell built-ins can still be executed without appearing in the allowlist and without requiring user approval. This allows an attacker via indirect or direct prompt injection to poison the shell environment by setting, modifying, or removing environment variables that influence trusted commands. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.3.

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 · high confidence

In Cursor versions prior to 2.3, the Allowlist mode in Auto-Run Mode can be bypassed by executing certain shell built-ins that do not appear in the allowlist and do not trigger user approval. This allows an attacker with prompt injection access to manipulate environment variables that affect trusted command execution, effectively poisoning the shell environment.

MitigationUpgrade Cursor to version 2.3 or later, which contains the vendor fix for this allowlist bypass vulnerability.

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

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
CursorApplication
Affected:< 2.3

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
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/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. Check installed Cursor version
    Open Cursor and go to Help > About, or run 'cursor --version' from command line if available
    Affected if Version is below 2.3 (e.g., 2.2.x, 2.1.x, etc.)
  2. Verify Auto-Run Mode configuration
    Open Cursor Settings > Auto-Run Mode and examine whether Allowlist mode is enabled
    Affected if Auto-Run Mode is set to Allowlist and version is below 2.3
  3. Inspect environment variable handling
    Check if custom environment variables are being passed to terminal commands in Cursor settings or workspace configuration files
    Affected if Custom env vars are defined and Auto-Run Mode allowlist is active with version below 2.3

You are affected if Cursor version is below 2.3 and Auto-Run Mode is configured with Allowlist mode enabled, as this combination allows the shell built-in bypass to succeed.

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.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 2.3 or later
Fixed in 2.3
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Cursor to version 2.3 or later, which contains the vendor fix for this allowlist bypass vulnerability.

Recommended fix High confidence

Cursor 2.3

  1. Open Cursor editor
  2. Navigate to the Cursor menu (Cursor > Check for Updates on macOS or Help > Check for Updates on Windows/Linux)
  3. Allow Cursor to check for available updates
  4. If version 2.3 or later is available, click to install the update
  5. Alternatively, download Cursor version 2.3 or later directly from the official cursor.sh website
  6. Restart Cursor after the update completes
  7. Verify the version by going to Cursor > About Cursor (macOS) or Help > About (Windows/Linux) and confirming the version number is 2.3 or higher

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Cursor Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation1.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing1.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
4.0 hours of engineering $750
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,200.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-22708 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

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-2026-22708 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data