CVE-2021-32692: Activity Watch vulnerable to command execution on macOS via printAppTitle.scpt

Severity: critical (CVSS 9.6 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.8% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2022-12-23 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-77

Description

Activity Watch is a free and open-source automated time tracker. Versions prior to 0.11.0 allow an attacker to execute arbitrary commands on any macOS machine with ActivityWatch running. The attacker can exploit this vulnerability by having the user visiting a website with the page title set to a malicious string. An attacker could use another application to accomplish the same, but the web browser is the most likely attack vector. This issue is patched in version 0.11.0. As a workaround, users can run the latest version of aw-watcher-window from source, or manually patch the `printAppTitle.scpt` file.

Affected products

activitywatch: before 0.11.0 — fixed in 0.11.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: activitywatch 0.11.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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