Compliance Impact

This vulnerability allows remote code execution (RCE) on the victim's machine, which can lead to unauthorized access and control over sensitive data stored within the application.

Such unauthorized access and potential data compromise can negatively impact compliance with data protection standards and regulations like GDPR and HIPAA, which require strict controls to protect confidentiality, integrity, and availability of personal and sensitive information.

Because the vulnerability enables attackers to execute arbitrary code, it poses a critical risk to the security posture of affected systems, potentially leading to breaches that violate regulatory requirements.

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Impact Analysis

This vulnerability can have severe impacts including remote code execution on your machine if you import a malicious note file.

• Attackers can execute arbitrary code, potentially gaining full control over your system.
• Confidentiality, integrity, and availability of your data and system can be compromised.
• It can lead to unauthorized access, data theft, or system disruption.

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Executive Summary

CVE-2026-45668 is a critical vulnerability in Trilium Notes versions before 0.102.2 that allows remote code execution (RCE) through a specially crafted ZIP archive imported with safe import enabled.

The attack involves two notes inside the ZIP: a payload note containing raw HTML/JavaScript (mime type text/plain) and a trigger note with a #docName label that uses path traversal (e.g., ../) to point to the payload note's API endpoint.

Because the Electron renderer runs with nodeIntegration enabled, when the payload note is loaded, the malicious code executes, leading to RCE on the victim's machine.

Safe import fails to properly sanitize the docName label and the text/plain content, enabling this exploit.

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Detection Guidance

This vulnerability involves importing a malicious ZIP archive containing specially crafted notes that exploit path traversal and XSS to achieve remote code execution. Detection would focus on monitoring for suspicious ZIP archive imports into Trilium Notes, especially those containing notes with #docName labels using ../ path traversal sequences.

Since the vulnerability exploits the import of malicious notes, you can detect attempts by scanning for ZIP files imported into Trilium Notes and inspecting their contents for notes with docName labels containing path traversal patterns like "../" or "../../".

Suggested commands might include:

• Extract ZIP files imported into Trilium Notes and search for path traversal in note labels: unzip suspicious_file.zip -d extracted_folder && grep -r "../" extracted_folder
• Monitor application logs for import events and check for unusual or failed imports.
• Use file integrity monitoring to detect unexpected changes in note files or API endpoints.

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Mitigation Strategies

The primary mitigation is to upgrade Trilium Notes to version 0.102.2 or later, where this vulnerability is fixed.

Until the upgrade can be applied, avoid importing ZIP archives from untrusted or unknown sources, especially those containing notes with potentially malicious content.

Additionally, disable or restrict the use of safe import features if possible, and monitor for suspicious import activity.

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