Vulnerability · Published Aug 4, 2026 · Assigned by CPANSec
CVE-2026-66902Google::Auth versions before 0.06 for Perl run a command named in an external_account credentials JSON via an ungated system call
Critical 9.8
In plain English
A critical-severity OS command injection in Google::Auth from CJCOLLIER. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.7% (higher than 53% of all known vulnerabilities).
Official description
Google::Auth versions before 0.06 for Perl run a command named in an external_account credentials JSON via an ungated system call. The Pluggable subclass reads credential_source.executable.command from the credentials JSON and runs it as `system($command)`, a single argument call that passes the whole string to /bin/sh -c. The executable's environment_variables map from the same JSON is copied into %ENV first. No opt-in gate guards the call. make_creds selects the Pluggable subclass whenever credential_source.executable is present, so the path is reached from the standard Application Default Credentials flow, including a "type": "external_account" configuration read from the file named by GOOGLE_APPLICATION_CREDENTIALS. Configurations without credential_source.executable do not select this subclass and do not reach the call. Any caller that builds credentials from a configuration it does not fully control runs the embedded command with the privileges of the application process.
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| CJCOLLIER | Google::Auth | 0 – before 0.06 |
Weakness: CWE-78, CWE-829 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H