{"id":"CVE-2026-109437","title":"Cognition < 0.13.0 Unauthenticated RCE via Local Shell Backend","summary":"Cognition before 0.13.0 contains an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability due to defaulting its agent sandbox backend to local execution and shipping no authentication on its REST/SSE API. Attackers can create a session via…","severity":"critical","cvss":9.8,"cvssVector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","cvssSource":"cna","cwe":["CWE-1188","CWE-306"],"vendor":"CognicellAI","product":"Cognition","affected":["Cognition < 0.13.0"],"ssvc":{"exploitation":"poc","automatable":"no","technicalImpact":"total","timestamp":"2026-10-20T16:03:09.450817Z"},"exploitAvailable":true,"published":"2026-10-19","updated":"2026-10-23","sourceUpdated":"2026-10-23T13:28:30.752Z","source":"CVEORG","sourceUrl":"https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-109437","references":[{"url":"https://www.lasso.security/vulnerability-database/cve-2026-109437","label":"Lasso.security Advisory"},{"url":"https://github.com/CognicellAI/Cognition/releases/tag/v0.13.0","label":"Cognition v0.13.0 Release Notes"},{"url":"https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/cognition-unauthenticated-rce-via-local-shell-backend","label":"VulnCheck Advisory: Cognition < 0.13.0 Unauthenticated RCE via Local Shell Backend"}],"tags":["cve.org","exploit-available"],"epss":0.00778,"epssPercentile":0.55651,"ingestedAt":"2026-10-19T18:35:50.126Z","slug":"CVE-2026-109437","body":"## Overview\n\nCognition before 0.13.0 contains an unauthenticated remote code execution vulnerability due to defaulting its agent sandbox backend to local execution and shipping no authentication on its REST/SSE API. Attackers can create a session via POST /sessions and post a message via POST /sessions/{id}/messages without credentials, causing the Deep Agents ReAct loop to run attacker-directed shell commands through the local shell backend, resulting in remote code execution as the server process.\n\n## Affected\n\n- `Cognition < 0.13.0`\n\n## Remediation\n\nUpgrade to Cognition 0.13.0 or later. Version 0.13.0 refuses the local sandbox backend unless COGNITION_ALLOW_UNSAFE_LOCAL_EXECUTION is explicitly set to true, and that setting defaults to false.","depth":"abyssal","depthScore":66,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":53.9,"likelihood":0.2,"exploitation":12,"ransomware":0},"changes":[{"seq":226011,"id":"CVE-2026-109437","ts":1792516441714,"field":"exploit_available","old":"false","new":"true"}]}