electerm: Path traversal in electerm runWidget leads to arbitrary code execution

Description

electerm is an open-sourced terminal/ssh/sftp/telnet/serialport/RDP/VNC/Spice/ftp client. Prior to version 3.7.16, the runWidget function in src/app/widgets/load-widget.js constructs a file path by directly concatenating user‑supplied widget identifiers without any sanitisation. Because runWidget is exposed to the renderer process via an asynchronous IPC handler with no input validation, an attacker who achieves JavaScript execution inside the renderer (for example, through a malicious plugin or a cross‑site scripting flaw in the built‑in webview) can abuse a path traversal (../) to load and execute an arbitrary JavaScript file anywhere on the victim’s filesystem. This gives the attacker local code execution with the full privileges of the electerm process, leading to complete system compromise. This issue has been patched in version 3.7.16.

Scores

EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)

0.17% · top 94% of all CVEs (6 Nov 2026)

CISA SSVC

Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total

The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.4.

Weakness

• CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') (opens in a new tab)All about CWE-22 and its CVEs
• CWE-829: Inclusion of Functionality from Untrusted Control Sphere (opens in a new tab)All about CWE-829 and its CVEs

Affected products

• electerm · electerm

  • affected < 3.7.16

Affected packages

From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.

• npmelectermGHSA-f77v-9vpc-6pjm (opens in a new tab)

References (2)

• https://github.com/electerm/electerm/security/advisories/GHSA-f77v-9vpc-6pjm (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRM
• https://github.com/electerm/electerm/releases/tag/v3.7.16 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC

Sources

The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.

• CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
• CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
• NVD (opens in a new tab)
• FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
• OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
• GitHub Advisory GHSA-f77v-9vpc-6pjm (opens in a new tab)
• CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)

Badge for a README or a ticket

[![CVE-2026-43940](https://trackcve.app/badge/CVE-2026-43940.svg)](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2026-43940)

Record last updated 8 May 2026, 12:52 UTC.