Vulnerability · Published Oct 22, 2026 · Assigned by Checkmarx
CVE-2026-77157ast-cli: Auto-update downloads are not verified against a checksum before execution
Medium 6.4
In plain English
A medium-severity security flaw in github.com/checkmarx/ast-cli from Checkmarx. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.1% (higher than 4% of all known vulnerabilities).
Official description
ast-cli downloads two helper binaries, the Vorpal ASCA real-time engine and the SCA Resolver, from "download.checkmarx.com" as part of its auto-update flow, triggered by the Checkmarx’s "VSCode/JetBrains" extensions and by cx scan "sca-realtime". Prior to the fix, the downloaded archive was not verified against a checksum before extraction and execution. An attacker able to substitute the served archive could deliver an arbitrary binary that ast-cli would extract and execute the contents of the archive, since no integrity check was performed on the download. Successful exploitation requires compromising "download.checkmarx.com" and replacing the served archive with one containing an attacker-controlled binary. If the served archive had been replaced that way, any developer machine or CI pipeline invoking ASCA (via Checkmarx's VSCode/JetBrains extensions) or cx scan "sca-realtime" on an affected version would have extracted and executed that binary in place of the intended download. The download is now verified against a published SHA-256 checksum before extraction.
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Checkmarx | github.com/checkmarx/ast-cli | 0 – through 2.3.59 |
Weakness: CWE-353 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:H/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
- https://github.com/Checkmarx/ast-cli product
- https://github.com/Checkmarx/ast-cli/security/advisories/GHSA-vf6p-x2fw-5hcg third-party-advisory