NovumOS: Nova Interpreter Privilege Escalation
- Last modified
- Where the record stands: published, rejected by its publisher, or superseded by another id.What do these mean? →
- published
- Whether CISA lists it in its Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog: proof that attackers are using it.What do these mean? →
- Not listed in CISA KEV
- How many real-world setups can hit the bug, from the vendor's advisory and CISA data. It does not know your setup.What do these mean? →
- Specific setups only
- Fix
- Fixed in 0.25-beta.1
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
Summary
The NovumOS operating system, specifically its built-in Nova script interpreter, is affected. A local user who loads a malicious Nova script through the shell can run code with full kernel privileges and bypass security checks, giving them complete control over the system.
Summarized by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5. Verify details against the original sources.
Read the original description
NovumOS is a custom 32-bit operating system written in Zig and x86 Assembly. Prior to version 0.25-beta.1, the `Nova` interpreter runs in Ring 0 with unrestricted kernel-memory access. Loading a malicious `.nv` script through the shell permits a local user to execute code with kernel privileges without security checks. The advisory identifies VM initialization in `zig/nova/vm.zig` as the affected component; script execution is not isolated in a restricted Ring 3 privilege domain. This issue is fixed in version 0.25-beta.1.
Timeline
- CVE published
- First seen by cve.now
Affected versions
- MinecAnton209 NovumOS
fixed in 0.25-beta.1
References 3
GitHub · MinecAnton209/NovumOS
Questions about CVE-2026-40573
What does this mean?
The Nova language interpreter in NovumOS runs in kernel mode (Ring 0) with unrestricted access to all kernel memory. A malicious Nova script can therefore execute arbitrary code with kernel privileges.Source: github.com
Am I affected, and how do I check?
Affected are NovumOS versions before 0.25-beta.1 that include the Nova interpreter. To check a system, look at the NovumOS version it runs and whether the Nova interpreter is present or enabled.Source: github.com
What should I do about it?
Upgrade NovumOS to 0.25-beta.1 or later, which contains the fix. Until the upgrade is applied, disable the Nova interpreter and do not run unverified .nv scripts.Source: github.com
Is it being exploited?
It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and CISA's SSVC assessment does not mark exploitation as active. That does not mean it has not been attacked: vendors and researchers can report attacks before CISA lists them. No public exploit code is tracked.Source: cve.now feed data