RCE in Arcane
CVE-2026-23520
Arcane provides modern docker management. Prior to 1.13.0, Arcane has a command injection in the updater service. Arcane’s updater service supported lifecycle labels com.getarcaneapp.arcane.lifecycle.pre-update and com.getarcaneapp.arcane.lifecycle.post-update that allowed defining a command to run before or after a container update. The label value is passed directly to /bin/sh -c without sanitization or validation. Because any authenticated user (not limited to administrators) can create projects through the API, an attacker can create a project that specifies one of these lifecycle labels with a malicious command. When an administrator later triggers a container update (either manually or via scheduled update checks), Arcane reads the lifecycle label and executes its value as a shell command inside the container. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.13.0.
Vulnerability class: Command Injection (OS Command Injection)
EPSS: 0.017 (75.8th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 9.0 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Affected products
- Arcane
- Getarcaneapp Arcane — versions < 1.13.0
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_CONFIRM, Vendor Advisory)
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_MISC, Issue Tracking)
- security-advisories@github.com (Exploit, x_refsource_MISC)
- security-advisories@github.com (x_refsource_MISC, Release Notes)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-23520?
- CVE-2026-23520 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Arcane, classified under OS Command Injection. CVSS score: 9.0/10. Published 2026-01-15.
- How severe is CVE-2026-23520?
- Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.0 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2026-23520 known to be exploited?
- 5 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.