EMBRACE: built-in browsers in Cursor, Copilot, Codex, VS Code and Claude Desktop broken, Codex and VS Code still unpatched
Published Sources: pwn.watch
What is affected, what to do
Forever Security published research on Oct 29 2026, which it calls EMBRACE, showing that the browsers built into five AI coding assistants let a web page or a local file reach the computer behind them. In Cursor a booby-trapped page got the agent to run a command on the host with a single Enter (fixed Oct 1).
The available sources name no fixed version. Check the vendor guidance in the references below.
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Metrics
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Priority
No value is available for this vulnerability.
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CVSS v3
No value is available for this vulnerability.
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EPSS score
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- Severity
- High
Priority (0–325)
The priority score is a consolidated metric that condenses several individual signals into a single, action-guiding ranking: technical severity (CVSS), exploitation likelihood (EPSS), known-exploited status (KEV) and the context of the affected asset. The aim is to answer the only truly important question in vulnerability management: what first?
Read in glossary- 30.00 Methodology
Exploit maturity
An exploit is code or a technique that specifically uses a concrete vulnerability to force unintended behaviour — such as executing code or escalating privileges. It is the tool that turns a theoretical flaw into a practical attack.
Read in glossary- no public PoC known
KEV status
The KEV catalogue is a list maintained by the US authority CISA of vulnerabilities for which active exploitation in the wild has been confirmed. It answers not the question „how severe?“ but „is it already being attacked?“ — thereby sharply prioritising patching.
Read in glossary- —
- Published
Classification under NIS2 and CRA
Rule-based classification from exploitation status and severity. It does not replace a case-by-case assessment.
NIS2
NIS2 is EU Directive (EU) 2022/2555 to raise the level of cybersecurity across the Union. It substantially broadens obligations compared with the first NIS directive: more sectors, mandatory risk management, staged reporting duties and personal accountability of senior management.
Read in glossary- High technical severity: assess and remediate the vulnerability in vulnerability handling under Art. 21(2)(e) NIS2 and document the decision.
CRA
The CRA is EU Regulation (EU) 2024/2847 setting horizontal cybersecurity requirements for „products with digital elements“ — from industrial controllers and software to connected consumer devices. For the first time manufacturers must ensure security across the entire product lifecycle, handle vulnerabilities and provide security updates.
Read in glossary- From 11.12.2027, Annex I Part II CRA requires manufacturers of affected products with digital elements to handle vulnerabilities without delay and provide security updates.
ISO/IEC 27001
ISO/IEC 27001 is the internationally leading standard for an information security management system (ISMS). It describes a risk-based, process-oriented framework to systematically plan, implement, review and improve information security.
Read in glossary- Control A.8.8, management of technical vulnerabilities: assess relevance to your systems, plan remediation and keep evidence.
Description
Forever Security published research on Oct 29 2026, which it calls EMBRACE, showing that the browsers built into five AI coding assistants let a web page or a local file reach the computer behind them. In Cursor a booby-trapped page got the agent to run a command on the host with a single Enter (fixed Oct 1). In GitHub Copilot a page could spoof the address bar to show github.com to both the user and the agent (fixed in Copilot 1.1.29). In Codex, VS Code and Claude Desktop a single local HTML file opened in the built-in browser could read and exfiltrate any file on the disk, such as SSH keys, .env files and npm tokens. Codex and VS Code had no fix at publication: Microsoft declined the report citing Workspace Trust, and OpenAI never replied.
Source: pwn.watch