CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-53534

HighCVSS 7.5
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.45%

36th percentile - higher than 36% of all known CVEs

Summary

JabRef, a desktop application for managing BibTeX/BibLaTeX libraries, prior to 6.0-alpha.6 is vulnerable to shell command injection. When the built-in HTTP server (jabsrv) is enabled, the GET /better-bibtex/cayw endpoint accepts an external command query parameter, which on Unix-like systems is combined with citation keys and executed through sh -c without shell escaping.

Risk Assessment

A client able to issue a localhost request with application=sublime can inject shell metacharacters and execute arbitrary OS commands as the JabRef user once the victim completes the CAYW selection dialog. This requires the server to be enabled (disabled by default) and a valid Sublime Text command path to be configured.

Recommendation

Upgrade JabRef to version 6.0-alpha.6 or later. If upgrading is not possible, do not enable the built-in HTTP server or jabsrv, especially on workstations with local network access.

Related vulnerabilities

Original NVD description (English source)

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.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS