Cyber Resilience

CVE-2025-54136

RCE in Anysphere Cursor ≤ 1.3

Published
02 August 2025
Modified
17 June 2026
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 7.2
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS Score 0.26 98th percentile
Risk Priority 67 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2025-54136 is a high-severity OS Command Injection (CWE-78) vulnerability in Anysphere Cursor. Its CVSS base score is 7.2 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Command and Scripting Interpreter (T1059); ranked in the top 2% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

This vulnerability is AI-related — categorised as Enterprise AI Assistants; in the Supply Chain and Deployment risk domain.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SA-11 (Developer Testing and Evaluation) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

Deeper analysis AI-assisted summary

Synthesised by an AI model from the NVD description and linked references — a reading aid, not an authoritative source.

CVE-2025-54136 affects Cursor, a code editor built for programming with AI, in versions 1.2.4 and below. The vulnerability enables remote and persistent code execution by modifying an already trusted MCP configuration file within a shared GitHub repository or by editing the file locally on the target's machine. Classified under CWE-78 (OS Command Injection) with a CVSS v3.1 base score of 7.2 (AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H), it was published on 2025-08-02.

Attackers can exploit this if they have write permissions on a user's active branches in a source repository containing existing MCP servers the user has previously approved, or if they have arbitrary local file-write access on the target machine. In such scenarios, after a collaborator accepts a harmless MCP, the attacker can silently swap it for a malicious command (e.g., calc.exe) without triggering any warning or re-prompt, achieving arbitrary code execution.

The vulnerability is fixed in Cursor version 1.3. Additional details are available in the security advisory at https://github.com/cursor/cursor/security/advisories/GHSA-24mc-g4xr-4395.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Cursor is a code editor built for programming with AI. In versions 1.2.4 and below, attackers can achieve remote and persistent code execution by modifying an already trusted MCP configuration file inside a shared GitHub repository or editing the file…

more

locally on the target's machine. Once a collaborator accepts a harmless MCP, the attacker can silently swap it for a malicious command (e.g., calc.exe) without triggering any warning or re-prompt. If an attacker has write permissions on a user's active branches of a source repository that contains existing MCP servers the user has previously approved, or allows an attacker has arbitrary file-write locally, the attacker can achieve arbitrary code execution. This is fixed in version 1.3.

CWE(s)

AI Security AnalysisAI

AI Category
Enterprise AI Assistants
Risk Domain
Supply Chain and Deployment
OWASP Top 10 for LLMs 2025
None mapped
Classification Reason
Matched keywords: ai, mcp

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1059 Command and Scripting Interpreter Execution
Adversaries may abuse command and script interpreters to execute commands, scripts, or binaries.
T1059.003 Windows Command Shell Execution
Adversaries may abuse the Windows command shell for execution.
T1059.004 Unix Shell Execution
Adversaries may abuse Unix shell commands and scripts for execution.
T1059.001 PowerShell Execution
Adversaries may abuse PowerShell commands and scripts for execution.
T1190 Exploit Public-Facing Application Initial Access
Adversaries may attempt to exploit a weakness in an Internet-facing host or system to initially access a network.
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-31854Same product: Anysphere Cursor
CVE-2025-64106Same product: Anysphere Cursor
CVE-2025-61591Same product: Anysphere Cursor
CVE-2025-54135Same product: Anysphere Cursor
CVE-2025-54133Same product: Anysphere Cursor
CVE-2025-54131Same product: Anysphere Cursor
CVE-2025-61590Same product: Anysphere Cursor
CVE-2025-64108Same product: Anysphere Cursor
CVE-2025-61593Same product: Anysphere Cursor
CVE-2026-22708Same product: Anysphere Cursor

Affected Assets

anysphere
cursor
≤ 1.3

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.2.5
  • V1.2.8
  • V15.2.5

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

Developer testing and evaluation can discover missing or incorrect command sanitization during development.

Input validation directly neutralizes or rejects special characters that would otherwise alter OS command structure.

Least privilege reduces the permissions available to any process that could be subverted by injected commands.

Least functionality restricts available OS commands and interpreters, limiting the blast radius of injection.

Secure engineering principles require proper neutralization of untrusted input before command construction.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

PR.PS-06's SDLC practices directly require secure coding and input handling that blocks command-injection defects, yet the single broad outcome leaves many specific neutralization vectors and verification gaps unaddressed.

PR.PS-02 partial match
prevents

Routine patching/maintenance can remediate known command-injection CVEs in dependencies (partial forward) but does nothing to stop developers from introducing improper neutralization in custom code (none reverse).

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

finds

Security testing and code review target insecure use of operating-system command interfaces, catching command-injection flaws introduced during development.

References