CVE-2019-16765
If an attacker can get a user to open a specially prepared directory tree as a workspace in Visual Studio Code with the CodeQL extension…
- 7.4HighCVSS base score
- 5.4%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 7.2% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
If an attacker can get a user to open a specially prepared directory tree as a workspace in Visual Studio Code with the CodeQL extension active, arbitrary code of the attacker's choosing may be executed on the user's behalf. This is fixed in version 1.0.1 of the extension. Users should upgrade to this version using Visual Studio Code Marketplace's upgrade mechanism. After upgrading, the codeQL.cli.executablePath setting can only be set in the per-user settings, and not in the per-workspace settings. More information about VS Code settings can be found here.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 2 months later
· 2 months later
Published
- 5 years later
· 5 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 5.4% · top 7.2% of all CVEs (11 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.4.
Affected products
- affected < 1.0.1 – < 1.0.1
What to do
Workaround: Manually review the workspace settings for any workspace obtained from an external source. These settings can be found in the .vscode/settings.json file within the workspace directory. Remove the configuration values for the codeQL.cli.executablePath, codeQL.cli.owner, and codeQL.cli.repository settings for the workspace. If you wish to use the codeQL.cli.executablePath setting to indicate the location of a CodeQL CLI executable, then move this to your user settings, and check that you trust the configured path. You can access the user settings by choosing Preferences: Open User Settings from the Command Palette.
References
References3
- https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql/security/advisories/GHSA-wf4x-8mpj-r42q (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql/pull/174 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql/blob/v1.0.1/CHANGELOG.md (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2019-7295 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2019-16765)Record last updated .