CVE-2026-54055
MediumCVSS 5.0Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk0th percentile - higher than 0% of all known CVEs
Summary
In versions prior to 0.47.2, a local privilege escalation vulnerability exists in Kitty's file transmission protocol. A child process running in the terminal can write to arbitrary files on the filesystem by exploiting a TOCTOU race condition between symlink validation and file creation.
Risk Assessment
This vulnerability may lead to unauthorized access to system files, posing a serious threat to data integrity and system security.
Recommendation
It is recommended to upgrade to version 0.47.2 or later to mitigate this vulnerability.
Original NVD description (English source)
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.