Vulnerability · Published May 28, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2026-45374CodeWhale: task_create Insecure Defaults Enable RCE via Prompt Injection in Project Files

Critical 9.6

In plain English

A critical-severity code injection in CodeWhale from Hmbown. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.4% (higher than 33% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)9.6Critical

Exploit odds (30 days)0.4%top 67.0% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: poc

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

CodeWhale is a DeepSeek + MiMo coding agent in terminal. Prior to 0.8.26, the task_create tool spawns durable sub-agents that inherit two insecure defaults, allow_shell defaults to true (config.rs:1499: self.allow_shell.unwrap_or(true)) and auto_approve defaults to true (task_manager.rs:297: auto_approve: Some(true)). When a user approves a task_create call (which requires ApprovalRequirement::Required), they approve what appears to be a benign work prompt. However, the spawned sub-agent silently receives unrestricted, unapproved shell access. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.8.26.

Affected products (as reported)

Vendor	Product	Versions
Hmbown	CodeWhale	< 0.8.26

Weakness: CWE-94 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

References

https://github.com/Hmbown/CodeWhale/security/advisories/GHSA-72w5-pf8h-xfp4 x_refsource_CONFIRM
https://github.com/Hmbown/DeepSeek-TUI/releases/tag/v0.8.26 x_refsource_MISC