Vulnerability · Published Jun 12, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

CVE-2026-54056Kitty has an arbitrary file overwrite via symlink following in `kitten dnd` remote drop staging

High 7.6

In plain English

A high-severity security flaw in kitty from kovidgoyal. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.3% (higher than 19% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)7.6High
Exploit odds (30 days)0.3%top 81.0% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: poc
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

Kitty is a cross-platform GPU based terminal. In versions 0.47.0 and 0.47.1, `kitten dnd` can allow a malicious remote drag-and-drop source to overwrite or truncate arbitrary files writable by the local kitty user. Remote `text/uri-list` drops are staged in a temporary directory, but on case-sensitive filesystems duplicate remote basenames are not de-duplicated. An attacker can first create a staged symlink and then send a same-name regular-file entry. The regular-file write uses `utils.CreateAt()` / `openat(O_RDWR|O_CREAT|O_TRUNC)` without `O_NOFOLLOW`, so it follows the attacker-created symlink and writes outside the staging directory before final overwrite confirmation runs. This appears related in class to the file-transfer symlink advisory, but it is a different bug: it affects `kitten dnd` remote drag-and-drop staging, uses different vulnerable code (`kittens/dnd/drop.go` and `tools/utils/file_at_fd.go`), and reproduces on commit `4aa4a5c0567a92553a8c20a88a4352da637fca5d`, after the file-transfer `O_NOFOLLOW` fix. Version 0.47.2 patches the issue.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian:14kitty0.47.3-1DEBIAN-CVE-2026-54056
Ubuntu:25.10kittyno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-54056
Ubuntu:26.10kittyno fix listedUBUNTU-CVE-2026-54056

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
kovidgoyal kitty >= 0.47.0, < 0.47.2

Weakness: CWE-59 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:H/A:L

References