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The editor is secure. The code it writes still needs checking.

Security Scanner forCursor Apps

Cursor writes the route and the auth check in the same pass. The check is the part that slips. IDOR, inverted auth, hardcoded secrets, and three CVEs published against the editor in 2025 alone.

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The short answer

The Short Answer: Cursor Is Safe, But Its Code Isn’t

Cursor the editor is SOC 2 Type II certified and offers Privacy Mode to keep your code off its servers. The security risk isn't the tool — it's the code the tool generates.

A Stanford University study (Perry et al., 2022) found that developers using AI code assistants produce significantly less secure code, and are more likely to believe it is secure. A 2026 study of 200 deployed apps built with Claude Code or Lovable (Deng, Fan and Meng, arXiv:2606.23130, a preprint that is not yet peer-reviewed) found 90% contained at least one vulnerability expert reviewers judged exploitable against the live site. That corpus did not include Cursor, so it is not a Cursor number. It is the closest independent measurement of what AI-built apps ship with.

On top of code-level risks, three CVEs were published against Cursor in 2025:

  • CVE-2025-54135 (CurXecute) — Malicious Slack messages processed by Cursor could rewrite MCP configs and execute arbitrary commands
  • CVE-2025-54136 (MCPoison) — Shared repository configs enabled persistent team-wide compromise
  • CVE-2025-59944 — Case-sensitivity bypass allowed attackers to modify protected configuration files

The bottom line: use Cursor for speed, but scan before you ship. Our methodology page lists every figure we cite, where it came from, and which of our own we retracted.

Common vulnerabilities

Common Vulnerabilities in Cursor Projects

These are the security issues we find most frequently in codebases built with Cursor. For a full breakdown, see our vulnerabilities by platform reference.

  1. IDOR with Sequential IDs

    Critical

    Cursor frequently generates API routes using auto-incrementing IDs without ownership checks. An attacker changes /api/invoices/42 to /api/invoices/43 and accesses another user's data. Nothing in the generated route checks that the row belongs to the caller.

  2. Inverted Auth Conditions

    Critical

    A single misplaced negation operator flips your auth logic: authenticated users get blocked, anonymous requests get through. It passes manual testing because you test while logged in.

  3. Frontend-Only Admin Checks

    High

    Cursor generates admin panels where role checks only happen in React components. The API endpoints behind them accept requests from anyone. A plain curl against the endpoint returns the same data with no session at all.

  4. Hardcoded Secrets in Source

    High

    Cursor pulls API keys from your context window and embeds them directly in code. These get committed to Git history permanently. According to GitGuardian, 12.8 million secrets were exposed on GitHub in 2024 alone.

  5. MCP & Prompt Injection Risks

    Critical

    CVE-2025-54135 (CurXecute) showed that malicious content processed by Cursor can rewrite MCP configs and execute arbitrary commands. CVE-2025-54136 (MCPoison) enabled team-wide compromise through shared repository configs.

  6. Auto-Run Code Execution

    High

    Cursor ships with Workspace Trust disabled by default (CVE-2025-59944). A malicious .vscode/tasks.json in a cloned repo can execute code the moment you open the folder — no click required.

How ShipSafe Secures Your Cursor Project

1

Connect Your Repository

Link your GitHub repo, or run ShipSafe from your terminal with npx if the project only lives on your machine. Any Cursor-generated project, regardless of framework.

2

Automated Security Scan

Our scanner analyzes every file for the vulnerability patterns that Cursor's AI commonly introduces, including auth logic, data access, and secret management.

3

Get Fix Suggestions

Receive a prioritized report with severity ratings and concrete code fixes you can apply immediately, no security expertise needed.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Cursor safe to use for production code?
Cursor the editor is SOC 2 Type II certified and secure. The risk is in the code it generates: a Stanford study (Perry et al., 2022) found developers using AI assistants write significantly less secure code, and are more likely to believe it is secure. A 2026 study of 200 deployed apps built with Claude Code or Lovable (Deng, Fan and Meng, arXiv:2606.23130, a preprint that is not yet peer-reviewed) found 90% contained at least one vulnerability that expert reviewers judged exploitable against the live site. That corpus did not include Cursor, so it is not a Cursor number, but the failure modes it describes are the ones we find in Cursor code. Use Cursor for speed, but always scan before deploying to production.
What are the security risks of using Cursor?
There are two categories of risk. First, code-level vulnerabilities in what it writes: IDOR on sequential IDs, inverted authentication logic, admin checks that live only in the React component, and API keys pulled out of the context window into source. Second, tool-level risks: three CVEs were published in 2025 — CurXecute (CVE-2025-54135), MCPoison (CVE-2025-54136), and a file protection bypass (CVE-2025-59944). Update Cursor regularly and scan your code with a tool like ShipSafe.
How do I secure code generated by Cursor?
Five steps: 1) Add security instructions to your .cursorrules file. 2) Review every auth-related code path manually. 3) Run an automated security scanner like ShipSafe before every deploy. 4) Use server-only imports for sensitive operations. 5) Never commit secrets to Git — use environment variables and a secrets manager.
How is ShipSafe different from other vibe coding scanners?
ShipSafe scans your actual GitHub repository — not just a URL. It uses AI to analyze authentication flows, authorization boundaries, and secret management across your entire codebase. Most competitors only run regex-based pattern matching on surface-level code. ShipSafe performs 190+ security checks including OWASP Top 10 vulnerabilities, and generates plain-English reports with fix suggestions.
Does ShipSafe work with Cursor Composer and Agent mode?
Yes. ShipSafe scans your actual codebase regardless of which Cursor feature generated it — tab completion, inline editing, Composer multi-file generation, or Agent mode. The scanner analyzes the output, not the tool that produced it.

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This is an independent comparison provided for informational purposes. All product names, logos, and brands are the property of their respective owners; ShipSafe is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by them. Statements about other products reflect publicly available information at the time of writing and may change, so please verify current details on each provider’s own website.

auth.ts — Cursor
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Cursor wrote this route in four seconds. It also forgot to check whether the caller is allowed to read userId. Any logged-in user can read every other user's data by changing one number in the URL.