Cursor up to 1.6 Visual Studio Code Workspace vscode/settings.json code injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Cursor up to 1.6 and classified as critical. This affects an unknown function of the file vscode/settings.json of the component Visual Studio Code Workspace Handler. This manipulation causes code injection. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2025-61590. The attack is possible to be carried out remotely. No exploit exists. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Cursor up to 1.6. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown part of the file vscode/settings.json of the component Visual Studio Code Workspace Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a code injection vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-94. The product constructs all or part of a code segment using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the syntax or behavior of the intended code segment. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Cursor is a code editor built for programming with AI. Versions 1.6 and below are vulnerable to Remote Code Execution (RCE) attacks through Visual Studio Code Workspaces. Workspaces allow users to open more than a single folder and save specific settings (pretty similar to .vscode/settings.json) for the folders / project. An untitled workspace is automatically created by VS Code (untitled.code-workspace), which contains all the folders and workspace settings from the user's current session, opening up an entire new attack vector if the user has a .code-workspace file in path (either untitled created automatically or a saved one). If an attacker is able to hijack the chat context of the victim (such as via a compromised MCP server), they can use prompt injection to make the Cursor Agent write into this file and modify the workspace. This leads to a bypass of CVE-2025-54130 which can lead to RCE by writing to the settings section. This issue is fixed in version 1.7.

The advisory is shared at github.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-61590 since 09/26/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. The attack can be launched remotely. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1059 for this issue.

By approaching the search of inurl:vscode/settings.json it is possible to find vulnerable targets with Google Hacking.

Upgrading to version 1.7 eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Name

• Cursor

Version

• 1.0
• 1.1
• 1.2
• 1.3
• 1.4
• 1.5
• 1.6

Website

• Product: https://github.com/cursor/cursor/

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