High severity · published Apr 28, 2026
CVE-2026-41526
In KDE KCoreAddons before 6.25, KShell::quoteArgs is intended to safely quote arguments so that they can be passed to a shell command
7.8
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
In KDE KCoreAddons before 6.25, KShell::quoteArgs is intended to safely quote arguments so that they can be passed to a shell command. This parsing does not adequately handle metacharacters, leading to an escape from the shell. All applications relying on this method in a security-critical path to handle user input are affected and could be exploited. In particular, because sendInput() sends a string to a terminal, a control character such as \x01 can be used during injection.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
None
User interaction
Required
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 6% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
KC
KCoreAddons · KDE
before 6.25 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-41526
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-41526
Product
https://github.com/KDE/kcoreaddons/blob/50d360736c399502fedf203e95482b0d0e5a3ea2/src/lib/util/kshell.h#L168
Product
https://github.com/KDE/kcoreaddons/blob/50d360736c399502fedf203e95482b0d0e5a3ea2/src/lib/util/kshell.h#L43-L49
Release Notes
https://github.com/KDE/kcoreaddons/releases/tag/v6.25.0
Product
https://invent.kde.org/frameworks/kcoreaddons/
Vendor Advisory
https://kde.org/info/security/advisory-20260427-1.txt
