Skip to main content
← All vulnerabilities
CVE-2026-54056

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

Published
Last modified
published
Not listed in CISA KEV
Fix
Fixed in 0.47.2
None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
  • Exploitation: poc
  • Automatable: no
  • Technical impact: partial

Summary

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.

Timeline

  1. CVE published
  2. CISA SSVC assessment

    Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

  3. Record last updated

Affected versions

  • kovidgoyal kitty

    From 0.47.0 · fixed in 0.47.2

References 1

GitHub · kovidgoyal/kitty