CVE-2026-76228 — Renovate before 42.68.5 Remote Code Execution via Gradle Wrapper

Affected: renovatebot renovate, mend renovate-ce, mend renovate-ee-server, mend renovate-ee-worker

Renovate versions >=32.124.0 and before 42.68.5 (and Mend renovate-ce/renovate-ee before 13.3.0) contain a command injection vulnerability in Gradle Wrapper artifact handling. When Renovate processes Gradle Wrapper updates, it invokes a wrapper update command via a shell (e.g. /bin/sh -c ... ./gradlew :wrapper --gradle-distribution-url <value>). If an attacker supplies a malicious gradle-wrapper.properties whose distributionUrl contains shell command substitution syntax such as $(...), the shell evaluates it before Gradle parses the URL, resulting in arbitrary command execution in the Renovate runtime. Exploitation requires the attacker to introduce the malicious file into a repository that Renovate scans; the issue occurs even when allowScripts is disabled.

GHSA-pfq2-hh62-7m96 — Renovate vulnerable to arbitrary command injection via Gradle Wrapper and malicious `distributionUrl`

Affected: npm: renovate

### Summary Renovate can be tricked into executing shell code while updating the Gradle Wrapper. A malicious `distributionUrl` in `gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties` can lead to command execution in the Renovate runtime.

### Details When Renovate handles Gradle Wrapper artifacts, it may run a wrapper update command such as: - `./gradlew :wrapper --gradle-distribution-url <value>`

In the observed behavior, Renovate executes this via a shell (e.g., `/bin/sh -c ...`). If `distributionUrl` contains shell command substitution syntax like `$(...)`, the shell evaluates it **before** Gradle validates/parses the URL.

After that, Gradle attempts to parse the URL as a URI and fails with `URISyntaxException`, but the shell substitution has already executed.

This is reproducible even when `allowScripts` is disabled (default is OFF), because this execution happens as part of Gradle Wrapper artifact handling rather than “repository install scripts”.

Prerequisites / attack conditions: - The attacker must be able to get a malicious `gradle-wrapper.properties` into a repository that Renovate scans (e.g., direct write access, or a maintainer merges an attacker’s change/PR). - Renovate must be configured to process Gradle Wrapper updates/artifacts for that repository (default behavior for the Gradle Wrapper manager).

### PoC 1. Create a repository with a Gradle Wrapper (`gradlew`, `gradlew.bat`, `gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar`, and `gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties`).…

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CVE-2026-76228 — Renovate before 42.68.5 Remote Code Execution via Gradle Wrapper

GHSA-pfq2-hh62-7m96 — Renovate vulnerable to arbitrary command injection via Gradle Wrapper and malicious `distributionUrl`