CVE-2026-54555

rtk: Permission-gate bypass in rtk rewrite auto-allow via unsplit shell separators

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: June 23, 2026 at 07:05 PM UTC
Updated: October 25, 2026 at 11:10 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorRtk

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Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
PoC

Description

rtk filters and compresses command outputs before they reach your LLM context. Prior to 0.42.2, the permission splitter did not conservatively split or reject several shell constructs that Bash treats as command execution boundaries or nested execution. As a result, a command beginning with an allowed prefix such as git could hide a second command behind one of these constructs. rtk rewrite returned exit code 0, causing the Claude hook to emit permissionDecision: "allow". The rewritten command still contained the hidden command, so it ran without the user confirmation or denial that the permission rules were intended to enforce. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.42.2.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

90%
v < 0.42.2
Affected range stops below 0.42.2, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

References (1)

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCPoCNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

7.8HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-863

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