Description

Authorization bypass through user-controlled key in Visual Studio Code allows an unauthorized attacker to bypass a security feature locally.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "7.8",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-11T17:18:05.417Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-11T17:18:05.417Z",
  "executiveSummary": "This vulnerability involves an authorization bypass flaw affecting Visual Studio Code, specifically localized within user-controlled key mechanisms. The security defect allows an unauthorized local attacker to successfully circumvent critical security features designed to restrict unauthorized operations.\nThe primary impact of this authorization bypass is the unauthorized execution of privileged actions or access to restricted functionality within the local execution environment of Visual Studio Code. Because the flaw relies on user-controlled keys determining authorization status, an attacker who has obtained local access can manipulate these parameters to subvert expected security boundaries.\nThe affected product is Visual Studio Code. The risk implications are localized privilege or feature escalation, enabling malicious actors to bypass defensive checks that normally govern application behavior.\nAttacker capabilities require local access to the target system hosting Visual Studio Code. Exploitation requirements mandate that the attacker can interact with or supply a user-controlled key recognized by the application's authorization logic, allowing them to deceive the access control mechanism into granting unwarranted permissions.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of this vulnerability lies in insecure authorization logic within Visual Studio Code, where trust decisions or permission verifications rely on a user-controlled key rather than a cryptographically secure, immutable, or server-validated token. When the application evaluates whether an operation is authorized, it incorrectly trusts the integrity and provenance of the user-supplied key.\nThe vulnerable component involves the authorization subsystem of Visual Studio Code responsible for enforcing feature access controls based on key validation. Due to the lack of strict input sanitization, cryptographic verification, or integrity checks on the supplied key, the subsystem fails to validate whether the entity presenting the key possesses the legitimate authority to execute the restricted action.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, the local attacker identifies the mechanism where Visual Studio Code evaluates user-controlled keys for authorization decisions. Second, the attacker crafts or obtains a specific key value designed to satisfy the weak validation checks implemented in the vulnerable component. Third, the attacker supplies this manipulated key to the application during a routine operation or specifically targeted interaction. Fourth, the authorization component processes the user-controlled key, incorrectly interprets it as valid proof of authorization, and grants access to the restricted security feature.\nRegarding execution requirements, network exposure is local, meaning remote exploitation is not natively supported by this vector. Authentication requirements are effectively bypassed due to the nature of the flaw, and privilege requirements are limited to standard local user execution capabilities needed to interact with the Visual Studio Code instance. Post-exploitation impact includes the localized circumvention of application-level security controls, potentially permitting the execution of unauthorized commands, access to protected resources, or further manipulation of the local development environment depending on the scope of the bypassed feature."
}