CRITICALVulnerability
Verified
Global

NVD CRITICAL: CVE-2026-50549 — Cursor is a code editor built for programming with AI. Prior to 3.0, Cursor runs...

·Source: NIST NVD

Updated:

Executive Summary

Cursor is a code editor built for programming with AI. Prior to 3.0, Cursor runs agent terminal commands in a sandbox by default. Before a Write, the agent canonicalizes the target path to confirm it stays inside the workspace, but when canonicalization fails it falls back to the original path and writes without approval. A malicious agent can create an in-workspace symlink that points outside the

Analysis

Cursor is a code editor built for programming with AI. Prior to 3.0, Cursor runs agent terminal commands in a sandbox by default. Before a Write, the agent canonicalizes the target path to confirm it stays inside the workspace, but when canonicalization fails it falls back to the original path and writes without approval. A malicious agent can create an in-workspace symlink that points outside the workspace and force canonicalization to fail — either because the target does not exist or because read permission is removed from the path — so the agent writes through the symlink to an arbitrary location without approval. A malicious agent could write arbitrary files outside the workspace under the user's privileges. This enables non-sandboxed Remote Code Execution — for example by overwriting the cursorsandbox helper so later commands run unsandboxed — with no user interaction beyond a benign prompt. This vulnerability is fixed in 3.0. CVSS Score: 9.8. Published: 2026-06-25T19:16:39.793.

Indicators of Compromise (1)

CVE (1)
CVE-2026-50549
Source Attribution

Originally published by NIST NVD on Jun 25, 2026. Verified by: NIST.

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