Vulnerability · Published Jan 19, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2026-23838Tandoor Recipes module allows SQLite database to be externally accessible with the default settings

High 8.7

In plain English

A high-severity security flaw in nixpkgs from NixOS. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.5% (higher than 44% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 4.0)8.7High
Exploit odds (30 days)0.5%top 56.4% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: poc
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

Tandoor Recipes is a recipe manager than can be installed with the Nix package manager. Starting in version 23.05 and prior to version 26.05, when using the default configuration of Tandoor Recipes, specifically using SQLite and default `MEDIA_ROOT`, the full database file may be externally accessible, potentially on the Internet. The root cause is that the NixOS module configures the working directory of Tandoor Recipes, as well as the value of `MEDIA_ROOT`, to be `/var/lib/tandoor-recipes`. This causes Tandoor Recipes to create its `db.sqlite3` database file in the same directory as `MEDIA_ROOT` causing it to be accessible without authentication through HTTP like any other media file. This is the case when using `GUNICORN_MEDIA=1` or when using a web server like nginx to serve media files. NixOS 26.05 changes the default value of `MEDIA_ROOT` to a sub folder of the data directory. This only applies to configurations with `system.stateVersion` >= 26.05. For older configurations, one of the workarounds should be applied instead. NixOS 25.11 has received a backport of this patch, though it doesn't fix this vulnerability without user intervention. A recommended workaround is to move `MEDIA_ROOT` into a subdirectory. Non-recommended workarounds include switching to PostgreSQL or disallowing access to `db.sqlite3`.

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
NixOS nixpkgs >= 23.05, < 26.05

Weakness: CWE-538 · Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

References