Amazon Virtual Engineering Workbench: Template injection in publishing component
Summary
Amazon Virtual Engineering Workbench (VEW), an open-source platform for deploying self-service engineering workbenches on AWS, contains a template injection flaw (CWE-1336) in its publishing component. An authenticated user with publishing rights can submit a crafted CloudFormation template body through the product versioning API, which executes arbitrary code with the permissions of the publishing Lambda's IAM role. This could expose data and resources across all tenant projects.
Affected
- All commits before c146486 (PR #31, merged 2026-05-04)
- Released version numbers: Unknown.
Fixed in
- Commit c146486 (PR #31) in awslabs/virtual-engineering-workbench, applied to the main branch.
- Forks and derivative code must be checked for this commit.
Workaround
- No workaround removes the issue.
- Until the fix is deployed, limit which users can create or update product versions.
Exploitation
- Not known to be exploited.
- Not listed in CISA KEV at the time of research.
- No public exploit known.
Our recommendation
- Check whether your organisation deploys VEW, including forks, and identify affected deployments.
- Confirm whether the deployed code includes commit c146486 and, if not, redeploy from the latest version of the main branch.
- Restrict publishing and product versioning access to trusted users and review the publishing Lambda's IAM role for least privilege.
- Review logs of product version submissions and check for signs of misuse or unexpected data access.
- Note: The CVSS 4.0 base score of 9.4 is provided by the CNA (AMZN). NVD status was still Received at the time of research.
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- AWS Security Bulletin 2026-162-AWS aws.amazon.com
- GitHub commit c146486 (fix, PR #31) github.com
- VulDB entry for CVE-2026-119085 vuldb.com
- Offseq threat radar entry radar.offseq.com
Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 2 Nov 2026, 19:20.
Original description (NVD)
Improper neutralization of special elements used in a template engine in the publishing component of Amazon Virtual Engineering Workbench (VEW) could allow a remote authenticated third party to run arbitrary code with the permissions of the publishing Lambda's IAM role. This could allow access to data and resources across all tenant projects. The code is reachable through a crafted CloudFormation template body containing template engine directives submitted through the product versioning API. To remediate this issue, users should redeploy from the latest version of awslabs/virtual-engineering-workbench.
Sources
The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:
- NVD (NIST) – CVEs, rating (CVSS), affected products
- CISA KEV – vulnerabilities confirmed by CISA as actively exploited
- CISA Vulnrichment – CISA assessment (SSVC) in the official CVE record
- FIRST EPSS – probability of exploitation
- Microsoft MSRC – Patch Tuesday: vulnerabilities, severity, updates
- PoC-in-GitHub – public proof-of-concept repositories
- Metasploit (Rapid7) – modules of the Metasploit Framework
- Exploit-DB (OffSec) – archive of public exploits (links only)
- Patch days: official vendor pages (linked per vendor) (Vendor patch days)
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.
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