{
 "public_id": "AIR-2025-0105",
 "incident_id": "2025-08-amazon-q-developer-rce",
 "date_disclosed": "2025-08-19",
 "date_occurred": null,
 "title": "Amazon Q Developer: RCE because find was allowlisted as read-only despite -exec",
 "class": "responsible_disclosure",
 "attack_surface": "coding_agent",
 "initial_vector": "indirect_prompt_injection_source_code",
 "agent_capability_abused": [
  "shell_command_execution",
  "network_egress",
  "invisible_unicode_ingestion"
 ],
 "target_product": "Amazon Q Developer VS Code extension",
 "target_vendor": "Amazon Web Services",
 "autonomy_level": "semi_autonomous",
 "impact_realized": false,
 "impact_type": [
  "remote_code_execution",
  "c2_control",
  "code_execution",
  "data_exfiltration",
  "credential_theft"
 ],
 "blast_radius": "Amazon Q Developer users before v1.85",
 "cve": [],
 "taxonomy": {
  "owasp_asi": [
   "ASI01",
   "ASI05"
  ],
  "mitre_atlas": [],
  "labels": [
   "allowlist_abuse",
   "command_classification_error",
   "indirect_prompt_injection",
   "dns_exfiltration",
   "invisible_instructions",
   "approval_bypass"
  ]
 },
 "defense_present": "executeBash requires developer consent for mutating commands; find was misclassified as readonly",
 "defense_bypassed": true,
 "fix_shipped": "patched in v1.85 on 2025-07-17, 13 days after the report; AWS declined a CVE",
 "primary_sources": [
  "https://embracethered.com/blog/posts/2025/amazon-q-developer-remote-code-execution/",
  "https://embracethered.com/blog/posts/"
 ],
 "verified_quote": "This means we were able to run arbitrary remote commands dynamically too and by just changing the payload we can download malware to the developer's machine and have it join a botnet.",
 "confidence": "high",
 "notes": "Month of AI Bugs. | Merged from duplicate id `2025-08-amazon-q-find-exec-rce`. Also reported as: 'Amazon Q Developer: remote code execution and DNS secret exfiltration via prompt injection'.",
 "risk_category": "security_fraud",
 "risk_secondary": [
  "privacy"
 ],
 "risk_subcategory": "Prompt Injection",
 "risk_sub_secondary": [
  "Credential & Secret Theft",
  "Remote Code Execution & Sandbox Escape",
  "Persistence & Covert C2"
 ],
 "ai_entity": "generative",
 "agency": "agent_acted",
 "agency_debatable": false,
 "agency_reason": "Amazon Q executed find -exec, giving RCE and C2",
 "vector_family": "indirect_prompt_injection",
 "vector_detail": "indirect_prompt_injection_source_code",
 "guardrail_kind": [
  "unknown"
 ],
 "guardrail_outcome": "silent",
 "xrefs": {
  "aiid": [],
  "atlas": [],
  "cve": [],
  "ghsa": []
 },
 "primary_asi": "ASI01",
 "agent_framework": "unknown",
 "model_provider": "unknown",
 "model_name": "",
 "detection_mechanism": "external_researcher",
 "tool_access": "unknown",
 "financial_loss_band": "unknown",
 "eai_category": "data_exfiltration_channels",
 "eai_domain": "privacy",
 "eai_secondary": [
  "credential_theft",
  "privilege_escalation",
  "confused_deputy"
 ],
 "eai_reason": "impact rule: data_exfiltration_channels",
 "asi_curated": [
  "ASI01"
 ],
 "asi_scope": "in_scope",
 "asi_provenance": "curated_plus_rule",
 "asi_reason": "curated: ASI01 | added ASI05 (impact=code_exec)",
 "submitted_by": "EAI Internal"
}