zed-industries zed 0.197.3 Language Server Protocol settings.json command injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability has been found in zed-industries zed and classified as critical. The affected element is an unknown function of the file settings.json of the component Language Server Protocol. This manipulation causes command injection. This vulnerability appears as CVE-2025-68432. The attack requires local access. There is no available exploit. The affected component should be upgraded.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in zed-industries zed. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown part of the file settings.json of the component Language Server Protocol. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a command injection vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-77. The product constructs all or part of a command using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify the intended command when it is sent to a downstream component. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

Zed, a code editor, has an aribtrary code execution vulnerability in versions prior to 0.218.2-pre. The Zed IDE loads Language Server Protocol (LSP) configurations from the `settings.json` file located within a project’s `.zed` subdirectory. A malicious LSP configuration can contain arbitrary shell commands that run on the host system with the privileges of the user running the IDE. This can be triggered when a user opens project file for which there is an LSP entry. A concerted effort by an attacker to seed a project settings file (`./zed/settings.json`) with malicious language server configurations could result in arbitrary code execution with the user's privileges if the user opens the project in Zed without reviewing the contents. Version 0.218.2-pre fixes the issue by implementing worktree trust mechanism. As a workaround, users should carefully review the contents of project settings files (`./zed/settings.json`) before opening new projects in Zed.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2025-68432 since 12/17/2025. The exploitation appears to be difficult. Attacking locally is a requirement. Technical details of the vulnerability are known, but there is no available exploit. The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1202 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

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

Upgrading to version 0.218.2-pre eliminates this vulnerability.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• zed-industries

Name

• zed

Version

• 0.197.3

Website

• Product: https://github.com/zed-industries/zed/

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