Remote Code Execution (RCE) Resources

Remote Code Execution (RCE)

Remote Code Execution (RCE) is the ability for an attacker to execute arbitrary commands or code on a target machine or process. RCE vulnerabilities represent the most critical class of security bugs — they give an attacker the same level of control as a system administrator.

RCE can manifest through many different attack vectors. Command injection occurs when user input is passed unsanitized to system shell commands. Deserialization attacks exploit unsafe object reconstruction in languages like Java, PHP, Python, and .NET. Server-Side Template Injection (SSTI) allows code execution through template engines like Jinja2, Twig, or Freemarker. File upload vulnerabilities can lead to RCE when executable files bypass upload filters and are served by the web server.

In modern applications, RCE often appears in less obvious places: expression language injection in Java frameworks, prototype pollution leading to code execution in Node.js, unsafe use of eval() or dynamic code loading, and vulnerabilities in PDF generators, image processors, and other libraries that shell out to system commands.

RCE bugs consistently command the highest payouts in bug bounty programs because the impact is total system compromise. Chaining lower-severity bugs into RCE — such as SSRF to cloud metadata to code execution — is a common and highly rewarded approach.

This page collects RCE techniques, exploitation writeups, and research across all major platforms and languages.

From Wikipedia