Vulnerability · Published Aug 25, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-45018Chainlit: Command injection via MCP stdio transport allows unauthenticated remote code execution
Critical 9.8
In plain English
A critical-severity OS command injection in chainlit from Chainlit. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 1.1% (higher than 65% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
Chainlit is a Python framework for building production-ready conversational AI applications. From 2.4.0rc0 until 2.12.0, Chainlit deployments with features.mcp.enabled set to true in .chainlit/config.toml expose the POST /mcp endpoint without requiring authentication. For stdio transport, the endpoint accepts a user-controlled fullCommand string. The validate_mcp_command() function in backend/chainlit/mcp.py checks only the executable name against config.features.mcp.stdio.allowed_executables and passes unchecked arguments to StdioServerParameters in backend/chainlit/server.py. Because npx supports the -c argument, an attacker can execute arbitrary shell commands with the privileges of the Chainlit process. If allowed_executables is unset, its None default is treated as allowing every executable. This issue is fixed in version 2.12.0.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| PyPI | chainlit | 2.12.0 | GHSA-w3fx-mc44-mf6j |
| PyPI | chainlit | 2.12.0 | PYSEC-2026-3812 |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-78 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
- https://github.com/Chainlit/chainlit/security/advisories/GHSA-w3fx-mc44-mf6j x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/Chainlit/chainlit/commit/0565fd0eccb915fce159929598b053ed79f6e0c9 x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/Chainlit/chainlit/blob/2.12.0/docs/security-advisory-2026-mcp.md#spl-2026-001--command-injection-via-mcp-stdio x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/Chainlit/chainlit/releases/tag/2.12.0 x_refsource_MISC