CVE-2026-43940: electerm: Path traversal in electerm runWidget leads to arbitrary code execution

Severity: high (CVSS 8.4 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: 2026-05-08 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-22

Description

electerm is an open-sourced terminal/ssh/sftp/telnet/serialport/RDP/VNC/Spice/ftp client. Prior to version 3.7.16, the runWidget function in src/app/widgets/load-widget.js constructs a file path by directly concatenating user‑supplied widget identifiers without any sanitisation. Because runWidget is exposed to the renderer process via an asynchronous IPC handler with no input validation, an attacker who achieves JavaScript execution inside the renderer (for example, through a malicious plugin or a cross‑site scripting flaw in the built‑in webview) can abuse a path traversal (../) to load and execute an arbitrary JavaScript file anywhere on the victim’s filesystem. This gives the attacker local code execution with the full privileges of the electerm process, leading to complete system compromise. This issue has been patched in version 3.7.16.

Affected products

electerm: before 3.7.16 — fixed in 3.7.16

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: electerm 3.7.16. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

Get alerted when CVE-2026-43940 or the next vulnerability affects your stack