Security brief

Cursor repository-opening risk involved automatic tasks and workspace trust

REVIEW

September 2025 research described how a malicious repository could exploit permissive task-execution defaults.

Published 29 Oct 2026 · Material update 12 Sep 2025 — last time the underlying evidence changed · Evidence: medium

What happened

The Hacker News reported on Oasis Security research into Cursor’s handling of workspace trust. A crafted repository could contain a task configured to run when its folder opened, creating a path to local code execution.

The reported mechanism concerned editor task execution and security defaults. It is distinct from the MCPoison configuration-approval issue and does not require treating every AI-related repository incident as one vulnerability.

Review workspace-trust settings and automatic tasks before opening unfamiliar repositories. Use a maintained editor release and an isolated environment when examining untrusted code; this historical report does not establish the behavior of every current Cursor version.

Read the original source.

Next step

Review workspace trust and folder-open tasks before opening unfamiliar repositories.

What remains unknown

Open question
The sources reviewed do not establish whether your deployment was exploited.

Source references