Executive brief
Language Servers for AWS, which provides AI-powered coding assistance for various development environments, contains a vulnerability that could allow unauthorized file modifications. If a developer opens a specially crafted project folder containing malicious links, the software may write data to sensitive files outside of the intended project area. This could lead to the corruption of system files or the placement of malicious code on the user's computer.
Technical details
A symbolic link (symlink) following vulnerability (CWE-61) exists in Language Servers for AWS before version 1.69.0. The issue stems from a lack of proper validation for symlinks within a workspace, which can be exploited if a local user is enticed into opening a maliciously crafted workspace. An attacker can use a symlink that resolves to a path outside the workspace trust boundary to achieve arbitrary file writes on the local filesystem. This vulnerability affects several IDE plugins that bundle the language server, including Amazon Q Developer for VS Code, JetBrains, Eclipse, and Visual Studio. Users should upgrade to Language Servers for AWS version 1.69.0 or the corresponding updated IDE plugin versions.
Affected products
- Amazon Web Services Language Servers for AWS < 1.69.0
- Amazon Web Services Amazon Q Developer for Visual Studio Code < 2.20
- Amazon Web Services Amazon Q Developer for JetBrains < 4.3
- Amazon Web Services Amazon Q Developer for Eclipse < 2.7.4
- Amazon Web Services AWS Toolkit with Amazon Q for Visual Studio < 1.94.0.0
Timeline
- 2026-06-23: advisory: AWS security bulletin 2026-047-AWS published
- 2026-06-23: disclosed: CVE-2026-12958 published to NVD