---
id: CVE-2026-54525
title: >-
  Markdown Preview Enhanced is a Markdown preview extension for Visual Studio
  Code
summary: >-
  Markdown Preview Enhanced is a Markdown preview extension for Visual Studio
  Code. Prior to 0.8.28, Markdown Preview Enhanced preview-link handling passes
  a decoded, Markdown-controlled link target to a Windows file-opening helper
  that in…
severity: high
cvss: 8.8
cvssVector: 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'
cwe:
  - CWE-78
published: '2026-10-14'
updated: '2026-10-14'
sourceUpdated: '2026-10-14T19:17:17.480'
source: NVD
sourceUrl: 'https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-54525'
references:
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/shd101wyy/crossnote/commit/5588ca2121c3da43fe331575dc5cf4ef347b91ee
    label: security-advisories@github.com
  - url: 'https://github.com/shd101wyy/crossnote/pull/442'
    label: security-advisories@github.com
  - url: 'https://github.com/shd101wyy/crossnote/releases/tag/0.9.29'
    label: security-advisories@github.com
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/commit/dcd80281c986293b93d9f1af34ced64dcb230c77
    label: security-advisories@github.com
  - url: 'https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/pull/2318'
    label: security-advisories@github.com
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/releases/tag/0.8.28
    label: security-advisories@github.com
  - url: >-
      https://github.com/shd101wyy/vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced/security/advisories/GHSA-7v6f-3vq6-r373
    label: security-advisories@github.com
tags:
  - nvd
  - cve.org
ingestedAt: '2026-10-14T19:49:57.614Z'
vendor: shd101wyy
product: vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced
affected:
  - vscode-markdown-preview-enhanced < 0.8.28
---

## Overview

Markdown Preview Enhanced is a Markdown preview extension for Visual Studio Code. Prior to 0.8.28, Markdown Preview Enhanced preview-link handling passes a decoded, Markdown-controlled link target to a Windows file-opening helper that invokes child_process.exec with the start command. When a Windows user opens an untrusted Markdown file and clicks a crafted external or unsupported-scheme link, shell metacharacters in the decoded target are interpreted by cmd.exe as command separators, allowing an attacker-selected command to run with the privileges of the current VS Code user. The attack requires one normal preview-link click but does not require malicious workspace configuration, script execution to be enabled, or additional files. This issue is fixed in version 0.8.28.

## Remediation

Refer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.