CVE-2026-50642

Terminal Escape Injection in diff‑so‑fancy

Published Jul 29, 2026 CVSS 4.0 · 4.8 Medium EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed

Description

diff‑so‑fancy does not properly sanitize non‑SGR terminal control sequences before outputting diff data. The application only strips ANSI SGR sequences while allowing other control characters, including carriage return (\r) and escape sequences (e.g., OSC, CSI), to pass through unsanitized.

An attacker can embed malicious control sequences in filenames, diff metadata, or file content that are rendered directly in the terminal during diff viewing. This can lead to output manipulation, including filename spoofing, terminal screen clearing, and clipboard injection via supported escape sequences.

Successful exploitation may mislead users during code review, alter terminal state, or result in unintended command execution through clipboard hijacking.

This issue has been fixed in the commit 9c81294

Analysis

Technical impact

diff-so-fancy fails to sanitize non-ANSI SGR control sequences, allowing malicious carriage return and escape characters to survive in filenames, metadata or file contents; when displayed, these sequences are interpreted by the terminal, enabling output manipulation such as filename spoofing, screen clearing, and clipboard injection, which can mislead users during code review or lead to unintended command execution via clipboard hijacking.

Affected Systems

The flaw affects all versions of so-fancy:diff-so-fancy that have not incorporated the fix present in commit 9c81294; no specific version range is disclosed, so any unpatched installation may be vulnerable.

Risk and Exploitability

The CVSS score of 4.8 indicates moderate severity, while the EPSS score of less than 1 % implies a very low likelihood of exploitation; the vulnerability is not listed in the CISA KEV catalog. Likely attack requires local use of the diff-so-fancy CLI where the diff is rendered in a terminal that processes escape sequences; although remote code execution is not directly supported, an attacker can manipulate terminal state or hijack clipboard content.

Affected Products

Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).

Vendor Product Default status Versions

so-fancy

diff-so-fancy

unaffected

Version	Status	Constraints
`0`	affected	≤ 1.4.10

No data.

Vendor Product Versions

So-fancy

Diff-so-fancy

Version	Status	Scheme	Platform
`[0,1.4.10]`	affected	generic	—

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record.

OpenCVE Recommended Actions

Upgrade diff-so-fancy to a version that includes commit 9c81294 or later, ensuring that unsanitized control sequences are removed prior to terminal output.
If an immediate upgrade is not possible, run diff-so-fancy through a wrapper script that strips carriage return, OSC, and CSI escape characters from the output before it reaches the terminal.
Validate file names and content for unexpected control characters before generating a diff, and refrain from diffing untrusted inputs in a terminal environment lacking sequence filtering.

Generated by OpenCVE AI on August 3, 2026 at 13:29 UTC.

Tracking

Advisories

No advisories available

Metrics

Attack Vector Local

Attack Complexity Low

Privileges Required None

Attack Requirements None

User Interaction Passive

Vulnerable System Confidentiality Impact None

Vulnerable System Integrity Impact None

Vulnerable System Availability Impact Low

Subsequent System Confidentiality Impact None

Subsequent System Integrity Impact Low

Subsequent System Availability Impact None

Attack Vector Local

Attack Complexity Low

Privileges Required None

Scope Unchanged

Confidentiality Impact None

Integrity Impact Low

Availability Impact Low

User Interaction Required

No CVSS v3.0

No CVSS v2

This CVE is not in the KEV list.

Exploit prediction score: < 1% (0.229% probability within 30 days)

Exploitation none

Automatable no

Technical Impact partial

References

Link	Providers
https://cert.pl/posts/2026/07/CVE-2026-41874/
https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-50642
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-50642

History

Jul 30, 2026 12:15 AM Weaknesses updated. Added references. Scoring metrics updated View changes

Type	Values Removed	Values Added
Weaknesses		CWE-94
References		https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-50642 https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-50642
Metrics	threat_severity `None`	cvssV3_1 `{'score': 4.4, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L'}` threat_severity `Moderate`

Jul 29, 2026 3:30 PM First appearance in the feed. Affected vendors updated View changes

Type	Values Removed	Values Added
First Time appeared		So-fancy So-fancy diff-so-fancy
Vendors & Products		So-fancy So-fancy diff-so-fancy

Jul 29, 2026 1:30 PM Scoring metrics updated View changes

Type	Values Removed	Values Added
Metrics		ssvc `{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'partial'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}`

Jul 29, 2026 10:30 AM Description updated. Title updated. Weaknesses updated. Added references. Scoring metrics updated View changes

Type	Values Removed	Values Added
Description		diff‑so‑fancy does not properly sanitize non‑SGR terminal control sequences before outputting diff data. The application only strips ANSI SGR sequences while allowing other control characters, including carriage return (\r) and escape sequences (e.g., OSC, CSI), to pass through unsanitized. An attacker can embed malicious control sequences in filenames, diff metadata, or file content that are rendered directly in the terminal during diff viewing. This can lead to output manipulation, including filename spoofing, terminal screen clearing, and clipboard injection via supported escape sequences. Successful exploitation may mislead users during code review, alter terminal state, or result in unintended command execution through clipboard hijacking. This issue has been fixed in the commit 9c81294
Title		Terminal Escape Injection in diff‑so‑fancy
Weaknesses		CWE-116
References		https://cert.pl/posts/2026/07/CVE-2026-41874/ https://github.com/so-fancy/diff-so-fancy
Metrics		cvssV4_0 `{'score': 4.8, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:N/VA:L/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N'}`