CVE-2026-48547: KanaDojo < 0.1.18 Command Injection via patchNotesData.json in release.yml

Synopsis

A command injection vulnerability in KanaDojo (versions before 0.1.18) allows an attacker with pull request access to execute arbitrary shell commands on the GitHub Actions runner. By placing shell metacharacters in the version or changes fields of patchNotesData.json, an attacker's input is passed unsanitized to a child_process.execSync() call inside the release.yml workflow. Successful exploitation gives the attacker code execution in the CI environment with contents write permissions and access to GITHUB_TOKEN. A patched-image rebuild at version 0.1.18 is available on HarborGuard for environments running an affected version.

HarborGuard Coverage

Exploit Conditions

• Network reachabilityRequired

  The attacker must reach the target service over the network to submit or influence a pull request that triggers the vulnerable workflow.

• AuthenticationRequired

  The attacker must hold at least a low-privilege account with pull request access to the repository; no admin rights are needed.

• Victim interactionRequired

  A maintainer or automated process must merge the malicious pull request, making victim action a prerequisite for exploitation.

• Attack complexityDetail

  The exploit is reliable and condition-free once the malicious patchNotesData.json fields are in place; no race conditions or special environmental state are required.

Blast Radius

• Executes arbitrary shell commands on the GitHub Actions runner with contents write permissions, enabling the attacker to push commits, tags, or releases to the repository.
• Exfiltrates the GITHUB_TOKEN secret from the runner environment, which can be used to authenticate against the GitHub API and perform further repository or organization-level actions.
• Modifies or deletes repository content, CI artifacts, or release assets by abusing the write-level token obtained during exploitation.