Description
Improper Neutralization of Escape, Meta, or Control Sequences vulnerability in hexpm hex allows a malicious package publisher or a hostile repository server to inject terminal control sequences into the output of Mix tasks.

Hex prints strings supplied by the package repository and the documentation search service straight to the terminal through Hex.Shell.info/1 and Hex.Shell.error/1, neutralizing no control characters. Affected sinks span package metadata and configuration snippets in mix hex.info, search results in mix hex.package search and mix hex.search, owner and organization listings, publish and sponsor URLs, the authenticated username in mix hex.user, policy identities in mix hex.policy, and API error bodies rendered by Hex.Utils.print_error_result/1. A malicious package can embed ANSI escape sequences (cursor movement, line erase, carriage returns, OSC 52 clipboard writes) or Unicode bidirectional overrides in any of those fields, so the bytes reach the terminal unchanged, forging displayed URLs, package descriptions and suggested commands, concealing real output, or writing to the clipboard. No authentication or privileged position is required; only publishing a package.

This issue affects hex: from 0.0.1 before 2.5.2.
Published: 2026-10-12
Score: 2.3 Low
EPSS: n/a
KEV: No
AI Analysis

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Remediation

Vendor Solution

Upgrade Hex to 2.5.2 or later, for example with mix local.hex. Hex then escapes terminal control characters in text from hex.pm and the registry before printing it, and rejects registry dependencies whose package or repository name isn't a valid name.

Tracking

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Advisories

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History

Mon, 12 Oct 2026 16:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Improper Neutralization of Escape, Meta, or Control Sequences vulnerability in hexpm hex allows a malicious package publisher or a hostile repository server to inject terminal control sequences into the output of Mix tasks. Hex prints strings supplied by the package repository and the documentation search service straight to the terminal through Hex.Shell.info/1 and Hex.Shell.error/1, neutralizing no control characters. Affected sinks span package metadata and configuration snippets in mix hex.info, search results in mix hex.package search and mix hex.search, owner and organization listings, publish and sponsor URLs, the authenticated username in mix hex.user, policy identities in mix hex.policy, and API error bodies rendered by Hex.Utils.print_error_result/1. A malicious package can embed ANSI escape sequences (cursor movement, line erase, carriage returns, OSC 52 clipboard writes) or Unicode bidirectional overrides in any of those fields, so the bytes reach the terminal unchanged, forging displayed URLs, package descriptions and suggested commands, concealing real output, or writing to the clipboard. No authentication or privileged position is required; only publishing a package. This issue affects hex: from 0.0.1 before 2.5.2.
Title Terminal escape sequence injection in Hex via unneutralized server-supplied output
First Time appeared Hexpm
Hexpm hex
Weaknesses CWE-150
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:hexpm:hex:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Hexpm
Hexpm hex
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 2.3, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}


cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: EEF

Published:

Updated: 2026-10-12T15:46:12.146Z

Reserved: 2026-08-31T00:45:02.431Z

Link: CVE-2026-81856

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-10-12T16:17:05.827

Modified: 2026-10-12T16:17:05.827

Link: CVE-2026-81856

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-10-12T20:15:07Z

Weaknesses
  • CWE-150

    Improper Neutralization of Escape, Meta, or Control Sequences