CVE-2026-53534
Severity not reportedJabRef is a desktop application for managing BibTeX and BibLaTeX libraries.
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.
Affected products
Not reported by the source (unknown — not "none").
Weakness classification (CWE)
Source: NVD / CISA. “NVD-CWE-Other” and “NVD-CWE-noinfo” mean NVD could not assign a specific weakness.
Mitigation & advisories
No vendor advisory or patch reference tagged by NVD. Check the references below.
References
- https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/commit/b8663fe58e6c87c3927cdb4eeb1f6934d7c3f1d2 security-advisories@github.com
- https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/pull/15628 security-advisories@github.com
- https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/releases/tag/v6.0-alpha.6 security-advisories@github.com
- https://github.com/JabRef/jabref/security/advisories/GHSA-m42c-cw93-p629 security-advisories@github.com