Amazon patched a high-severity flaw in Amazon Q Developer and the underlying Language Servers for AWS that allowed a booby-trapped repository to execute attacker-controlled commands when a developer opened and trusted a workspace. Tracked as CVE-2026-12957 and rated CVSS 8.5, the issue involved unsafe handling of Model Context Protocol (MCP) configuration files such as .amazonq/mcp.json, which could cause Amazon Q integrations for VS Code, JetBrains, Eclipse, and Visual Studio to launch local processes defined by an attacker. Those processes inherited the developer’s environment, exposing AWS credentials, API keys, authentication tokens, and SSH agent access already present on the machine.
Wiz Research reported the vulnerability to AWS on April 20, and AWS fixed it on May 12, later publishing an advisory and releasing remediation in Language Servers for AWS 1.65.0. AWS also addressed a related flaw, CVE-2026-12958, involving missing symlink validation that could enable arbitrary file writes outside the workspace trust boundary; customers were advised to upgrade to version 1.69.0 to cover both issues. Researchers said likely attack paths include fake coding tests, typosquatted open-source packages, and malicious pull requests, while noting the weakness reflects broader trust-boundary problems emerging across AI coding assistants that adopt MCP-style workspace configuration.

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Wiz published its write-up describing how a malicious repository containing a .amazonq/mcp.json file could trigger local process execution in Amazon Q Developer and expose AWS credentials, API keys, tokens, and SSH agent access. Reports said no known public exploitation had been observed.
The arbitrary file write vulnerability CVE-2026-12958 was published publicly, with remediation guidance to upgrade Language Servers for AWS to version 1.69.0 or later.
AWS published a security bulletin covering CVE-2026-12957 and the related symlink-handling flaw CVE-2026-12958 affecting Language Servers for AWS and Amazon Q Developer plugins.
Amazon remediated CVE-2026-12957 on May 12, with the fix delivered in Language Servers for AWS version 1.65.0 and propagated to Amazon Q Developer integrations across supported IDEs.
Wiz Research notified AWS about CVE-2026-12957, a high-severity flaw in Amazon Q Developer and Language Servers for AWS that could let a malicious repository execute attacker-controlled commands and expose developer credentials.
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