The vulnerability stems from an improper neutralization of special elements used in a command, enabling command injection. An attacker can send a crafted payload that is executed on the target system, allowing bypass of an internal security feature over a network. The flaw represents a CWE‑77 weakness and can result in unauthorized execution of arbitrary code with the privileges of the running instance of Visual Studio Code or the Copilot Chat Extension.

Microsoft Visual Studio Code and the Copilot Chat Extension for Visual Studio Code are affected. All installations of either component that are running a version deployed before the remediation are potentially vulnerable. No specific version numbers are listed in the advisory, and therefore all pre‑patch releases are considered at risk.

The CVSS score of 8.8 categorises the vulnerability as high severity, while the EPSS score of 1% indicates a low likelihood of widespread exploitation at present. The issue is not present in the CISA KEV catalogue. Attackers would likely target instances of Visual Studio Code that are reachable over the network, delivering a specially crafted request that trick the extension into executing a payload. The exact network-facing interface is not detailed in the advisory, so the attack vector is inferred from the description of a “network” bypass.