CVE-2026-25063

High

Published: 29 January 2026

Published

29 January 2026

Modified

12 March 2026

KEV Added

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Patch

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CVSS Score 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS Score 0.0003 8.2th percentile

Risk Priority 16 60% EPSS · 20% KEV · 20% CVSS

Summary

CVE-2026-25063 is a high-severity OS Command Injection (CWE-78) vulnerability in Gradle Gradle-Completion. Its CVSS base score is 7.8 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Unix Shell (T1059.004); ranked at the 8.2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 CM-7 (Least Functionality) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).

Threat & Defense at a Glance

What attackers do: exploitation maps to Unix Shell (T1059.004) and 1 other technique. What defenders deploy: see the NIST 800-53 controls recommended below.

Threat & Defense Details

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5)AI

SI-2 Flaw Remediation good match

prevent

Flaw remediation requires timely patching of known vulnerabilities like CVE-2026-25063 in gradle-completion, directly preventing command injection exploitation.

SI-10 Information Input Validation good match

prevent

Information input validation mandates sanitizing Gradle task names and descriptions from build files before use in Bash completion scripts, directly countering the command injection vulnerability.

CM-7 Least Functionality good match

prevent

Least functionality enforces disabling non-essential Bash completion features like gradle-completion sourcing, eliminating the attack vector as per the recommended workaround.

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI

T1059.004 Unix Shell Execution

Adversaries may abuse Unix shell commands and scripts for execution.

attack.mitre.org →

T1204.002 Malicious File Execution

An adversary may rely upon a user opening a malicious file in order to gain execution.

attack.mitre.org →

Why these techniques?

Command injection in Bash completion script enables arbitrary Unix shell command execution (T1059.004) via attacker-controlled task descriptions in a malicious Gradle build file (T1204.002) when tab completion is triggered.

Confidence: HIGH · MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise v18.1

NVD Description

gradle-completion provides Bash and Zsh completion support for Gradle. A command injection vulnerability was found in gradle-completion up to and including 9.3.0 that allows arbitrary code execution when a user triggers Bash tab completion in a project containing a malicious…

Gradle build file. The `gradle-completion` script for Bash fails to adequately sanitize Gradle task names and task descriptions, allowing command injection via a malicious Gradle build file when the user completes a command in Bash (without them explicitly running any task in the build). For example, given a task description that includes a string between backticks, then that string would be evaluated as a command when presenting the task description in the completion list. While task execution is the core feature of Gradle, this inherent execution may lead to unexpected outcomes. The vulnerability does not affect zsh completion. The first patched version is 9.3.1. As a workaround, it is possible and effective to temporarily disable bash completion for Gradle by removing `gradle-completion` from `.bashrc` or `.bash_profile`.

Deeper analysisAI

CVE-2026-25063 is a command injection vulnerability (CWE-78, CWE-157) in the gradle-completion package, which provides Bash and Zsh completion support for Gradle. The issue affects versions up to and including 9.3.0, specifically the Bash completion script, which fails to adequately sanitize Gradle task names and task descriptions from a build file. This allows arbitrary code execution when a user triggers Bash tab completion in a project directory containing a malicious Gradle build file, such as one with a task description including a string between backticks that gets evaluated as a command. The Zsh completion is not affected.

Exploitation requires local access with low privileges (CVSS 7.8: AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H). An attacker with write access to a Gradle project can embed injection payloads in task descriptions, and when a victim user—whose shell sources the vulnerable gradle-completion script—performs tab completion in Bash within that project, the payload executes without the user needing to run any Gradle task explicitly. This leads to high-impact arbitrary code execution on the victim's system.

The vulnerability is patched in gradle-completion version 9.3.1. Advisories recommend upgrading to this version, with the fixing commit available at the Gradle completion GitHub repository. As a workaround, disable Bash completion by removing gradle-completion sourcing from .bashrc or .bash_profile. Additional resources include the GitHub security advisory and Vicarius posts detailing detection and mitigation scripts.