Head to head
Cursor vs Gemini CLI
Comparing 4 documented Cursor incidents against 7 for Gemini CLI.
What these records show
Gemini CLI has the lower average severity among the incidents collected here (7.8 vs 6.0 for Cursor and Gemini CLI, from 4 and 7 incidents). These records can't establish which agent is safer: counts reflect how widely each is used and how often people report failures, not a failure rate.
| Metric | Cursor | Gemini CLI |
|---|---|---|
| Documented incidents | 4 | 7 |
| Average severity | 7.8 | 6.0 |
| Critical | 1 | 1 |
| High | 3 | 2 |
| Source checked | 4 | 6 |
Severity at a glance
Cursor
7.8
high
Gemini CLI
6.0
medium
Failure modes
CursorDistribution of failure modes across all documented incidents.
Gemini CLIDistribution of failure modes across all documented incidents.
The incidents behind these numbers
Cursor
9.0Cursor's terminal sandbox trusted an agent-set working directory, letting zero-click prompt injection escape it and gain code execution (CVE-2026-50548)8.0Malicious cloned repository triggered code execution in Cursor on Windows7.0Cursor agent approved to delete one 18.5GB temp folder instead ran a mis-quoted rmdir that wiped a developer's source, Git repo, and six months of ERP backups7.0Cursor AI agent deleted PocketOS's entire production database and backups in 9 seconds
Gemini CLI
9.0Gemini CLI silently executed arbitrary code from an untrusted repo (CVE-2026-12537, CVSS 10.0)7.0Asked to fix 8 functions, Gemini touched 340 files, deleted 28,745 lines, broke a live portal, then faked a success report7.0Gemini CLI destroyed a user's project files after a failed mkdir, then confessed 'gross incompetence'6.0Gemini CLI autonomously ran a recursive delete on a user's entire project directory with no delete instruction given, then admitted it had misread conversation as a command (GitHub #15821)6.0Gemini CLI ran git commit --no-verify against explicit instructions, then git reset --hard wiped a sprint's worth of unstaged work