Title: Remote SSH broken after macOS 26.5.1 update (Cursor 3.8.24)

Support Bug Reports
, ,
1

Where does the bug appear (feature/product)?

Cursor IDE

Describe the Bug

Environment:

  • Cursor 3.8.24
  • Remote-SSH extension 0.113.1
  • macOS 26.5.1 (25F80)
  • Apple Silicon (arm64)
  • Remote host: CentOS 8 (4.18 kernel)

Symptoms:

Remote SSH worked prior to upgrading macOS and Cursor. After upgrading, Remote SSH fails during connection setup.

SSH authentication succeeds normally:

Authenticated to 10.20.122.48 ([10.20.122.48]:22) using “publickey”.

Cursor successfully uploads/starts the remote server.

The remote server is functional:

/root/.cursor-server/cursor-cf80f4b937f3b9c48070d7085129a838ce7876a0 –version

returns:

cursor 3.8.24 (commit cf80f4b937f3b9c48070d7085129a838ce7876a3)

and

/root/.cursor-server/cursor-cf80f4b937f3b9c48070d7085129a838ce7876a0 command-shell –on-port

returns:

Listening on 127.0.0.1:20703

The first error observed locally is:

listen EINVAL: invalid argument
/var/folders/…/vscode-ssh-askpass-xxxx.sock

followed by:

Server delay-shutdown request failed:
connect EINVAL
/var/folders/…/vscode-ssh-askpass-xxxx.sock

The connection then terminates with:

local-server-1> Timed out

and

Failed to parse remote port from server output

This appears to be a failure in Cursor’s local Unix-domain socket handling (askpass/local-server IPC) on macOS rather than an SSH or remote Linux compatibility issue.

Steps to Reproduce

Try to open previously opened session following upgrade. Log shows:

[23:01:41.610] Parsed server configuration: {“serverConfiguration”:{“remoteListeningOn”:{“port”:32785},“osReleaseId”:“centos”,“arch”:“x86_64”,“display”:“”,“tmpDir”:“/run/user/0”,“platform”:“linux”,“execServerToken”:“1aaa1aaa-111a-11aa-a111-aaa1111a1a11”},“serverStartTime”:88,“installUnpackCode”:“”}

Expected Behavior

Remote environment should appear

Operating System

MacOS
Linux

Version Information

Version: 3.8.24
VS Code Extension API: 1.105.1
Commit: cf80f4b937f3b9c48070d7085129a838ce7876a0
Date: 2026-06-24T06:55:08.142Z
Layout: editor
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 40.10.3
Chromium: 144.0.7559.236
Node.js: 24.15.0
V8: 14.4.258.32-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.256
OS: Darwin arm64 25.5.0

Does this stop you from using Cursor

Yes - Cursor is unusable

4

How do I downgrade to the previous version?

6

Hey, thanks for the detailed report, the logs make it clear. This isn’t an SSH or remote issue. It’s the Unix domain socket path length limit on macOS, sun_path is limited to about 104 bytes. Cursor creates an askpass socket under /var/folders/.../T/, that’s your $TMPDIR, and the full path ends up too long, which causes listen EINVAL, then you see “Timed out” or “Failed to parse remote port”. SSH auth and the remote server are actually fine, like you noticed.

No need to roll back, there’s a working workaround. The most reliable option is to shorten $TMPDIR, since the socket is created there:

launchctl setenv TMPDIR /tmp

After that, fully quit Cursor, not just close the window, then reopen it.

If that doesn’t work for some reason, as an alternative add this to settings.json:

"remote.SSH.useLocalServer": false

Then fully restart Cursor again.

This is a bug on our side in how the socket name is generated, I’ve reported it. No ETA for a fix yet, but the workaround above should get Remote SSH working again. Let me know how it goes.

9

Both changes were necessary… but it’s running again. Thanks.

10

Glad it’s working. One quick thing for our records: the report shows version 0.113.1, which looks like the Microsoft extension ms-vscode-remote.remote-ssh, not Cursor’s built-in fork anysphere.remote-ssh which uses versions like 1.1.x.

Can you check the Extensions panel and confirm which one you have installed and active? If it’s ms-vscode-remote.remote-ssh, it’s not officially supported in Cursor. I’d recommend uninstalling it and using anysphere.remote-ssh Anysphere Remote - SSH instead, that should avoid some of these issues.

11

I’m also seeing this issue the last few days. But the workarounds don’t work for me. I’ve applied both with no luck. I’ve got passwordless ssh working, but the logs still show askpass being executed. The weird thing is that the IDE window ssh works. Just the Agents window doesn’t connect to the same server. My understanding is that the Agents window uses the domain sockets and the IDE window doesn’t, which is why the difference in behaviour?

2026-07-07 12:26:26.431 [info] Resolving ssh remote authority 'proggie-dev-2.proggie.com' (Unparsed 'ssh-remote+7b22686f73744e616d65223a2274616c746d616e2d6465762d322e7274702e6e65746170702e636f6d227d') (attempt #1)
2026-07-07 12:26:26.438 [info] SSH askpass server listening on /var/folders/xw/cyxn7x011cs5b6tz1vfwvrk80000gp/T/cursor-ssh-UwJJBh/socket.sock
2026-07-07 12:26:26.439 [info] Using configured platform linux for remote host proggie-dev-2.proggie.com
2026-07-07 12:26:26.440 [info] Using askpass script: /Users/proggie/.cursor/extensions/anysphere.remote-ssh-1.1.6/dist/scripts/launchSSHAskpass.sh with javascript file /Users/proggie/.cursor/extensions/anysphere.remote-ssh-1.1.6/dist/scripts/sshAskClient.js. Askpass handle: /var/folders/xw/cyxn7x011cs5b6tz1vfwvrk80000gp/T/cursor-ssh-UwJJBh/socket.sock
2026-07-07 12:26:26.442 [info] Launching SSH server via shell with command: cat "/var/folders/xw/cyxn7x011cs5b6tz1vfwvrk80000gp/T/cursor_remote_install_3a960312-0228-48fb-812d-60487829c0ce.sh" | ssh -T -v -F "/Users/proggie/.ssh/config" -D 54963 proggie-dev-2.proggie.com bash --login -c bash
2026-07-07 12:26:26.442 [info] Started installation script. Waiting for it to finish...
2026-07-07 12:26:26.442 [info] Waiting for SSH handshake (timeout: 120s). Install timeout: 30s.
2026-07-07 12:28:26.449 [error] Error installing server: SSH connection timed out after 120s without receiving any data from the remote host
2026-07-07 12:28:26.450 [info] Deleting local script /var/folders/xw/cyxn7x011cs5b6tz1vfwvrk80000gp/T/cursor_remote_install_3a960312-0228-48fb-812d-60487829c0ce.sh
2026-07-07 12:28:26.452 [error] Error resolving SSH authority SSH connection timed out after 120s without receiving any data from the remote host


Version: 3.10.17 (Universal)
VS Code Extension API: 1.125.0
Commit: c89f45b831621cdc5e951694db44fecd8fab1150
Date: 2026-07-05T06:39:45.228Z
Layout: IDE
Build Type: Stable
Release Track: Default
Electron: 40.10.3
Chromium: 144.0.7559.236
Node.js: 24.15.0
V8: 14.4.258.32-electron.0
xterm.js: 6.1.0-beta.256
OS: Darwin arm64 25.5.0

Now on Mac OS 26.5.2

12

There is that reply above on the right remote to use… but I’ve been using the vscode for so many years, I won’t change it unless I see issues again.

I used a free chatGPT session to determine what the problem was with cursor, just fed it the errors until it told me the problem was with the Cursor upgrade and what to tell their support.

13

I already use the latest anysphere Remote - SSH