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OpenAdvisories
High · 7.6 CVE-2026-54056 EUVD-2026-36578

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

Published Jun 12, 2026 · Updated Jun 15, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

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 products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
kovidgoyal kitty >= 0.47.0, < 0.47.2 —

Fixed in Linux distributions

Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Debian 14 kitty 0.47.3-1 —
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu 26.10 kitty No fix yet —
Ubuntu 25.10 kitty No fix yet —
Show 4 more (older releases, extended support, other products)
ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Ubuntu Pro 26.04 LTS kitty No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 24.04 LTS kitty No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 22.04 LTS kitty No fix yet —
Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS kitty No fix yet —

References