๐Ÿ” CVE Alert

CVE-2026-54055

MEDIUM 5.0

Kitty has an Arbitrary File Write via Symlink Race Condition in File Transmission Protocol

CVSS Score
5.0
EPSS Score
0.0%
EPSS Percentile
1th

Kitty is a cross-platform GPU based terminal. In versions prior to 0.47.2, a local privilege escalation vulnerability exists in kitty's file transmission protocol where a child process running in the terminal can write to arbitrary files on the filesystem by exploiting a TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) race condition between symlink validation and file creation. The `os.open()` call used to create files does not use `O_NOFOLLOW`, allowing an attacker to create a symlink between the initial stat check and the actual file open, causing the write to follow the symlink to an arbitrary destination. Version 0.47.2 fixes the issue.

CWE CWE-59 CWE-367 CWE-426
Vendor kovidgoyal
Product kitty
Published Jun 12, 2026
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CVSS v3 Breakdown

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:L
Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
High
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
Low

Affected Versions

kovidgoyal / kitty
< 0.47.2

References

NVD โ†— CVE.org โ†— EPSS Data โ†—
github.com: https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/security/advisories/GHSA-q446-x7q6-vcxh