Findings

Vulnerability · CVE-2026-39309

Trilium Notes is a cross-platform, hierarchical note taking application focused on building large personal knowledge bases.

Published May 20, 2026 · corrected/updated Jul 24, 2026 · evidence confidence high

Trilium Notes is a cross-platform, hierarchical note taking application focused on building large personal knowledge bases. In versions 0.102.1 and prior, the Electron configuration is vulnerable to TCC Bypass via Prompt Spoofing, allowing local attackers to trigger misleading macOS permission prompts by running malicious code under the identity of the trusted app. The root cause is that the RunAsNode fuse allows launching the app in a special Node.js mode using -e to execute arbitrary system commands with Trilium Notes's permissions and identity. An attacker can leverage this through a subprocess to request any sensitive permissions, such as access to hardware (camera, microphone) and TCC-protected files, causing the TCC system prompt to appear as if the request came from Trilium rather than the attacker's code, because macOS treats the subprocess as part of the parent application. Exploitation allows access to TCC-protected resources like the screen, camera, microphone, and folders such as ~/Documents and ~/Downloads, undermining macOS's security model and UI integrity through social engineering. This issue has been fixed in version 0.102.2.

Grounded briefings

Catalog interpretations for three audiences. Each brief cites ingested metadata and the original advisories below. They are not independent research and they do not invent exploit steps.

Executive

CVE-2026-39309 is a medium public vulnerability record for this product. It is not currently listed in the CISA Known Exploited catalog. Check the linked vendor or CERT advisories for patch status. This summary is a catalog interpretation of the ingested metadata and cites the original advisories below.

System administrator

Identify whether this product is in your estate, then compare installed versions with the affected ranges. Affected version ranges have not been ingested yet. Check the linked vendor or CERT advisories for patch status. Prefer the vendor or distribution advisory linked in Sources before changing production systems. This is a catalog interpretation, not a runbook.

Security analyst

Signals on file: CVSS 5.5, EPSS 0.2%. It is not currently listed in the CISA Known Exploited catalog. Weakness classes: CWE-290, CWE-451. Sources contributing to this record: cve_org, epss, nvd. Public exploit references, when present, are outbound links only and are not proof of active exploitation. This is a catalog interpretation of stored metadata.

Exploitation and remediation

  • Exploitation evidence

    Not listed as known exploited in CISA KEV. Not in CISA KEV or VulnCheck KEV.

  • Patch and remediation

    No required-action text is stored yet. Use the vendor or CERT links in Sources for patch availability.

  • Safe detection guidance

    Compare installed versions with the affected ranges below and verify the advisory from the original publisher. This site stores metadata and outbound links only; it does not ship exploit code or proof-of-concept payloads.

Code

The project this record applies to. Exploit listings stay in References.

Timeline

Detection, updates, and resolution for this record.

  1. May 20, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Detected

    Trilium Notes is a cross-platform, hierarchical note taking application focused on building large personal knowledge bases. In versions 0.102.1 and prior, the Electron configuration is vulnerable to TCC Bypass via Prompt Spoofing, allowing local attackers to trigger misleading macOS permission prompts by running malicious code under the identity of the trusted app. The root cause is that the RunAs

  2. Jul 24, 2026 · NIST NVD

    Updated

    Trilium Notes is a cross-platform, hierarchical note taking application focused on building large personal knowledge bases. In versions 0.102.1 and prior, the Electron configuration is vulnerable to TCC Bypass via Prompt Spoofing, allowing local attackers to trigger misleading macOS permission prompts by running malicious code under the identity of the trusted app. The root cause is that the RunAs

Sources

  • CVE.orgVulnerability recordCVE-2026-39309

    Official CVE identifier

    cve.org
  • FIRST EPSSExploitation probabilityCVE-2026-39309

    30-day exploitation probability 0.2%

    first.org
  • NIST NVDVulnerability recordCVE-2026-39309

    Trilium Notes is a cross-platform, hierarchical note taking application focused on building large personal knowledge bases. In versions 0.102.1 and prior, the Electron configuration is vulnerable to TCC Bypass via Prompt Spoofing, allowing local attackers to trigger misleading ma

    nvd.nist.gov

References