What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities
CVE-2026-34773: Electron: Registry key path injection in app.setAsDefaultProtocolClient on Windows
- Severity: high (CVSS 7.5 v3.1)
- Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
- EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
- Public exploit or detection template: none known
- Published: 2026-04-04 · updated 2026-07-24
- Weakness: CWE-20
Description
Electron is a framework for writing cross-platform desktop applications using JavaScript, HTML and CSS. Prior to versions 38.8.6, 39.8.1, 40.8.1, and 41.0.0, on Windows, app.setAsDefaultProtocolClient(protocol) did not validate the protocol name before writing to the registry. Apps that pass untrusted input as the protocol name may allow an attacker to write to arbitrary subkeys under HKCU\Software\Classes\, potentially hijacking existing protocol handlers. Apps are only affected if they call app.setAsDefaultProtocolClient() with a protocol name derived from external or untrusted input. Apps that use a hardcoded protocol name are not affected. This issue has been patched in versions 38.8.6, 39.8.1, 40.8.1, and 41.0.0.
Affected products
- electron: before 38.8.6; from 39.0.0 before 39.8.1; from 40.0.0 before 40.8.1; 41.0.0-alpha1, 41.0.0-alpha2, 41.0.0-alpha3, 41.0.0-alpha4, 41.0.0-alpha5, 41.0.0-alpha6 (+8) — fixed in 38.8.6, 39.8.1, 40.8.1
How to fix
Upgrade to a fixed version: electron 38.8.6, 39.8.1, 40.8.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.
References
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