Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-57501 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-57501 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-57501?
- Informational severity, with a CVSS score of 0, published 9 July 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- Zen Browser < 1.21.5b.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-57501?
- A patch was published on 2026-07-02: Fixed in version 1.21.5b Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2026-57501 attacked?
- It is attacked over the network, in a network appliance.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-57501?
- Check whether you run Zen Browser 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 privilege escalation vulnerability exists in Zen Browser's 'Open link in glance' and 'Split link in new tab' context-menu actions. These features load page-controlled URLs using the System principal instead of the originating page's principal. This flaw allows a malicious web page to bypass standard content-to-file security checks by linking to a 'file://' URL. If a user interacts with the link via the affected context-menu items, the target loads with System privileges. While testing indicated that 'javascript:' and 'chrome://' targets are not affected, the vulnerability allows for the exposure of local files. The issue is resolved in version 1.21.5b.
Affected products
- Zen Browser Zen Browser < 1.21.5b
Timeline
- 2026-07-02: patched: Fixed in version 1.21.5b
- 2026-07-09: disclosed: Advisory published via GitHub and NVD