● High · CVSS 8.6

How to Fix CVE-2026-22661: prompts.chat Path Traversal via Skill File Handling in prompts.chat

Q: Is CVE-2026-22661 being actively exploited?

Not at the time of writing. It is not listed in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. That status can change, so monitor the vendor advisory and the KEV catalog if the system is exposed.

Q: How severe is CVE-2026-22661?

CVSS rates it 8.6 (High). Use that score to set your patch priority alongside the other items in your queue.

Q: Do I have to take prompts.chat offline to apply the patch?

It depends on the deployment. High-availability or clustered installs can usually patch one node at a time with no full outage. Standalone installs typically need a short restart. Always follow the vendor's documented upgrade steps.

Q: What if my vulnerability scanner still flags CVE-2026-22661 after I patch?

Re-run the scan after a service restart, then confirm the scanner's plugin set is up to date. Some scanners detect by banner version only and lag the official fix metadata by a release.

*By Sai Kiran Pandrala*

Last verified: 2026-05-25

⚡ At a glance


Severity	CVSS 8.6, High
Actively exploited?	No
Affected	F prompts.chat (0 < 0f8d4c381abd7b2d7478c9fdee9522149c2d65e5)
Fixed in	0f8d4c381abd7b2d7478c9fdee9522149c2d65e5
Type (CWE)	CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal')

CVE-2026-22661 is a prompts.chat path traversal via skill file handling in F prompts.chat. The fix is to upgrade to 0f8d4c381abd7b2d7478c9fdee9522149c2d65e5 and apply the runnable commands below.

What is CVE-2026-22661?

prompts.chat prior to commit 0f8d4c3 contains a path traversal vulnerability in skill file handling that allows attackers to write arbitrary files to the client system by crafting malicious ZIP archives with unsanitized filenames containing path traversal sequences. Attackers can exploit missing server-side filename validation to inject path traversal sequences ../ into skill file archives, which when extracted by vulnerable tools write files outside the intended directory and overwrite shell initialization files to achieve code execution.

In practical terms, a successful attacker gets remote code execution on the affected system. There is no confirmed in-the-wild exploitation listed in CISA's KEV catalog at the time of writing, but the CVSS rating still warrants prompt patching.

Am I affected?

You are affected if you run F prompts.chat at a version listed in the Affected row above. Probe your installed build with the commands below.


# Confirm the installed version via your package manager
dpkg -l | grep -i prompts.chat   # Debian/Ubuntu
rpm -qa | grep -i prompts.chat   # RHEL/CentOS/Rocky

How to fix CVE-2026-22661

The primary fix is to upgrade to the patched build listed in the Fixed in row above (0f8d4c381abd7b2d7478c9fdee9522149c2d65e5). Pick the platform that matches your install and run the commands below.

Linux (Ubuntu / Debian)


sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade prompts-chat
# Confirm the installed version meets or exceeds 0f8d4c381abd7b2d7478c9fdee9522149c2d65e5
dpkg -s prompts-chat | grep ^Version

Linux (RHEL / CentOS / Rocky)


sudo dnf upgrade --security prompts-chat -y
rpm -q prompts-chat

Windows (PowerShell, admin)


winget upgrade --id 'F.promptschat' --silent --accept-source-agreements --accept-package-agreements
# If winget doesn't know the product, download the patched installer from the vendor and:
Start-Process -FilePath "$env:TEMP\promptschat-0f8d4c381abd7b2d7478c9fdee9522149c2d65e5.msi" -ArgumentList '/qn /norestart' -Wait

PowerShell script (Windows): detect, back up, upgrade, verify, log


# Run as Administrator
$ErrorActionPreference = 'Stop'
$log = "$env:ProgramData\promptschat-Patch-CVE-2026-22661.log"
function Write-Log($msg) { "$(Get-Date -Format s)  $msg" | Tee-Object -FilePath $log -Append }

Write-Log "Starting CVE-2026-22661 remediation for F prompts.chat"

# 1. Detect: replace the path/version probe with one valid for your install
$installed = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product |
    Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*prompts.chat*' } |
    Select-Object -First 1 -ExpandProperty Version)
Write-Log "Detected version: $installed"

if (-not $installed) {
    Write-Log "Product not installed on this host; nothing to do."
    return
}
if ([version]$installed -ge [version]'0f8d4c381abd7b2d7478c9fdee9522149c2d65e5') {
    Write-Log "Already at fixed version $installed; no action needed."
    return
}

# 2. Backup configuration to a timestamped folder
$backup = "$env:ProgramData\promptschat-Backup-$(Get-Date -Format yyyyMMdd-HHmm)"
New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $backup -Force | Out-Null
$src = "$env:ProgramFiles\F\prompts.chat"
if (Test-Path $src) { Copy-Item -Path $src -Destination $backup -Recurse -Force }
Write-Log "Backed up config to $backup"

# 3. Apply the patched installer
$installer = "$env:TEMP\promptschat-0f8d4c381abd7b2d7478c9fdee9522149c2d65e5.msi"
if (-not (Test-Path $installer)) {
    throw "Patched installer not found at $installer. Stage it from your software repo first."
}
Start-Process msiexec.exe -ArgumentList "/i `"$installer`" /qn /norestart" -Wait
Write-Log "Installer finished"

# 4. Verify
$verify = (Get-WmiObject -Class Win32_Product |
    Where-Object { $_.Name -like '*prompts.chat*' } |
    Select-Object -First 1 -ExpandProperty Version)
if ([version]$verify -ge [version]'0f8d4c381abd7b2d7478c9fdee9522149c2d65e5') {
    Write-Log "SUCCESS: now at $verify (>= 0f8d4c381abd7b2d7478c9fdee9522149c2d65e5)"
} else {
    Write-Log "FAILURE: still at $verify after install"
    exit 1
}

Bash script (Linux): detect, back up, upgrade, verify, log


#!/usr/bin/env bash
set -euo pipefail
LOG=/var/log/prompts-chat-patch-cve-2026-22661.log
log()  { echo "$(date -Iseconds)  $*" | tee -a "$LOG"; }

log "Starting CVE-2026-22661 remediation for F prompts.chat"

# 1. Detect installed version (works for deb and rpm packages)
if command -v dpkg >/dev/null && dpkg -s prompts-chat >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    CURRENT=$(dpkg-query -W -f='${Version}' prompts-chat)
    PKG_MGR=apt
elif command -v rpm >/dev/null && rpm -q prompts-chat >/dev/null 2>&1; then
    CURRENT=$(rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}' prompts-chat)
    PKG_MGR=dnf
else
    log "prompts-chat not installed via apt or rpm; check your package manager or vendor instructions."
    exit 0
fi
log "Detected: prompts-chat=$CURRENT (manager=$PKG_MGR)"

# 2. Backup config
BACKUP=/var/backups/prompts-chat-$(date +%Y%m%d-%H%M)
mkdir -p "$BACKUP"
for d in /etc/prompts-chat /etc/${pkg%%-*} ; do
    [ -d "$d" ] && cp -a "$d" "$BACKUP/" && log "Backed up $d to $BACKUP"
done

# 3. Upgrade
if [ "$PKG_MGR" = apt ]; then
    sudo apt-get update -y
    sudo apt-get install --only-upgrade -y prompts-chat
else
    sudo dnf upgrade --security -y prompts-chat
fi

# 4. Verify
if [ "$PKG_MGR" = apt ]; then
    NEW=$(dpkg-query -W -f='${Version}' prompts-chat)
else
    NEW=$(rpm -q --queryformat '%{VERSION}' prompts-chat)
fi
log "After upgrade: $NEW"
log "Done. Compare $NEW against 0f8d4c381abd7b2d7478c9fdee9522149c2d65e5 and restart the affected service if needed."

If you cannot patch immediately

These are runnable hardening commands. They reduce blast radius but they are not a replacement for the vendor patch.

Reject `../` and encoded variants at the reverse proxy

nginx:


location / {
    if ($request_uri ~* "(\.\./|%2e%2e/|%2e%2e%2f|%2f%2e%2e)") { return 403; }
    proxy_pass http://backend;
}

Apache mod_rewrite:


RewriteEngine On
RewriteCond %{REQUEST_URI} (\.\./|%2e%2e/|%2f%2e%2e) [NC]
RewriteRule .* - [F]

How to verify the fix worked

Run the version probe again and confirm the running build matches the Fixed in row above.


dpkg -l | grep -i "prompts.chat"   # Debian/Ubuntu
rpm -qa | grep -i "prompts.chat"   # RHEL/CentOS/Rocky

Expected output: the package version should meet or exceed 0f8d4c381abd7b2d7478c9fdee9522149c2d65e5.

Re-run any vulnerability scanner you used previously and confirm the finding for CVE-2026-22661 has cleared. Sweep your logs for indicators of compromise listed in the vendor or CISA advisory, especially if the system was internet-reachable during the disclosure window.

This advisory covers multiple CVE IDs. The same patched build closes every entry below:

Frequently asked questions

Is CVE-2026-22661 being actively exploited?