RCE in Renovatebot Renovate
CVE-2026-76228
Renovate versions >=32.124.0 and before 42.68.5 (and Mend renovate-ce/renovate-ee before 13.3.0) contain a command injection vulnerability in Gradle Wrapper artifact handling. When Renovate processes Gradle Wrapper updates, it invokes a wrapper update command via a shell (e.g. /bin/sh -c ... ./gradlew :wrapper --gradle-distribution-url <value>). If an attacker supplies a malicious gradle-wrapper.properties whose distributionUrl contains shell command substitution syntax such as $(...), the shell evaluates it before Gradle parses the URL, resulting in arbitrary command execution in the Renovate runtime. Exploitation requires the attacker to introduce the malicious file into a repository that Renovate scans; the issue occurs even when allowScripts is disabled.
Vulnerability class: Command Injection (OS Command Injection)
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 6.7 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
Affected products
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- disclosure@vulncheck.com (vendor-advisory)
- disclosure@vulncheck.com (third-party-advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-76228?
- CVE-2026-76228 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Renovatebot Renovate, classified under OS Command Injection. CVSS score: 6.7/10. Published 2026-08-19.
- How severe is CVE-2026-76228?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.7 out of 10.