Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-16085 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-16085 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-16085?
- Medium severity, with a CVSS score of 5.3, published 18 July 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Sipeed PicoClaw <= 0.2.9.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-16085?
- No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.
- How is CVE-2026-16085 attacked?
- It is attacked with local access, in a software library.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-16085?
- Check whether you run Sipeed PicoClaw at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
Technical details
A vulnerability exists in the `NewContextBuilder` function within `pkg/agent/context.go` of Sipeed PicoClaw. When the `PICOCLAW_BUILTIN_SKILLS` environment variable is unset, the application defaults to searching for skills in the `./skills` directory relative to the current working directory (CWD). The `SkillsLoader` then extracts metadata from any `SKILL.md` files found and injects them into the model's system prompt via `BuildSystemPromptParts`. This allows a local attacker to place a malicious repository on a victim's machine; if the victim executes PicoClaw from that directory, the attacker can influence the AI's reasoning, tool selection, and actions without explicit user consent. As of the advisory date, the issue was marked as 'not planned' for fixing by the maintainers.
Affected products
- Sipeed PicoClaw <= 0.2.9
Timeline
- 2026-07-18: disclosed: Vulnerability disclosed and CVE assigned.
- 2026-07-18: advisory: NVD and VulDB published details.