CVE-2026-28207Zen-C Vulnerable to Command Injection via Malicious Output Filename
Updated under an hour ago ()
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Zen C is a systems programming language that compiles to human-readable GNU C/C11. Prior to version 0.4.2, a command injection vulnerability (CWE-78) in the Zen C compiler allows local attackers to execute arbitrary shell commands by providing a specially crafted output filename via the `-o` command-line argument. The vulnerability existed in the `main` application logic (specifically in `src/main.c`), where the compiler constructed a shell command string to invoke the backend C compiler. This command string was built by concatenating various arguments, including the user-controlled output filename, and was subsequently executed using the `system()` function. Because `system()` invokes a shell to parse and execute the command, shell metacharacters within the output filename were interpreted by the shell, leading to arbitrary command execution. An attacker who can influence the command-line arguments passed to the `zc` compiler (like through a build script or a CI/CD pipeline configuration) can execute arbitrary commands with the privileges of the user running the compiler. The vulnerability has been fixed in version 0.4.2 by removing `system()` calls, implementing `ArgList`, and internal argument handling. Users are advised to update to Zen C version v0.4.2 or later.
- CVSS
- 6.6 MEDIUM (v3.1, CNA)CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:L
- Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-78
- Known exploited
- Not in CISA's KEV catalog
- EPSS (exploitation in the next 30 days)
- Not loaded for this CVE
- Assigned by
- GitHub_M
- NVD analysis
- Analyzed
- Record last updated
- Mar 2, 2026
- First seen by InfoSec Signals
- Oct 9, 2026
The CVE record on cve.org NVD's entry
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