High severity · published Sep 17, 2026
CVE-2026-53534
JabRef CAYW Sublime Text integration permits operating-system command injection
7.5
CVSS
0.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
JabRef is a desktop application for managing BibTeX and BibLaTeX libraries. Prior to 6.0-alpha.6, when jabsrv or JabRef's built-in HTTP server is enabled, the GET /better-bibtex/cayw endpoint accepts an external command query parameter and CAYWQueryParams.getCommand() passes it through CAYWResource.getCitation() into PushToSublimeText.getCommandLine(). On Unix-like systems, PushToSublimeText combines this untrusted cite-command prefix and citation keys into a string executed through sh -c by ProcessBuilder without shell escaping. A client that can cause a localhost request with application=sublime can inject shell metacharacters and execute operating-system commands as the JabRef user when a valid Sublime Text command path is configured and the victim completes the CAYW selection dialog. The built-in server is disabled by default, so exploitation requires the victim to enable it or run jabsrv. This issue is fixed in version 6.0-alpha.6.
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.4% · higher than 39% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
JA
jabref · JabRef
< 6.0-alpha.6 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53534
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-53534
github.com
https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/commit/b8663fe58e6c87c3927cdb4eeb1f6934d7c3f1d2
github.com
https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/pull/15628
github.com
https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/releases/tag/v6.0-alpha.6
github.com
https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/security/advisories/GHSA-m42c-cw93-p629
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