Skip to content
Heist/ feed
Back to feed
High

Security advisory

Type: advisorySources: OSVCVE: CVE-2019-16765

If an attacker can get a user to open a specially prepared directory tree as a workspace in Visual Studio Code with the CodeQL extension active, arbitrary code of the attacker's choosing may be executed on the user's behalf. This is fixed in version 1.0.1 of the extension. Users should upgrade to this version using Visual Studio Code Marketplace's upgrade mechanism. After upgrading, the codeQL.cli.executablePath setting can only be set in the per-user settings, and not in the per-workspace settings. More information about VS Code settings can be found here.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2019-16765
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
31 Oct 2026, 09:43 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

CVE-2019-16765

core-osv · Original source

Published 25 Nov 2019, 18:15 UTC

If an attacker can get a user to open a specially prepared directory tree as a workspace in Visual Studio Code with the CodeQL extension active, arbitrary code of the attacker's choosing may be executed on the user's behalf. This is fixed in version 1.0.1 of the extension. Users should upgrade to this version using Visual Studio Code Marketplace's upgrade mechanism. After upgrading, the codeQL.cli.executablePath setting can only be set in the per-user settings, and not in the per-workspace settings. More information about VS Code settings can be found here.

osv:CVE-2019-16765
Complete source record
{
  "id": "dbeb68431226f58df50096c228dfdc5c1daaf85a2090db9bba7cdeb153b306e1",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2019-16765",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "CVE-2019-16765",
    "summary": "If an attacker can get a user to open a specially prepared directory tree as a workspace in Visual Studio Code with the CodeQL extension active, arbitrary code of the attacker's choosing may be executed on the user's behalf. This is fixed in version 1.0.1 of the extension. Users should upgrade to this version using Visual Studio Code Marketplace's upgrade mechanism. After upgrading, the codeQL.cli.executablePath setting can only be set in the per-user settings, and not in the per-workspace settings. More information about VS Code settings can be found here.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2019-16765",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2019-16765",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2019-16765",
        "GHSA-wf4x-8mpj-r42q"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "07f96bf43ea6b0a5ff4909d379b10b269014a908"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:microsoft:codeql:*:*:*:*:*:visual_studio_code:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "1.0.1"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "v1.0.0"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2019-16765.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-20T10:47:43.639116103Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql/blob/v1.0.1/CHANGELOG.md",
        "https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql/security/advisories/GHSA-wf4x-8mpj-r42q",
        "https://github.com/github/vscode-codeql/pull/174"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {}
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2019-16765",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 379653,
  "published_at": "2019-11-25T18:15:11.72+00:00"
}