CVE-2026-54055

Description

Kitty is a cross-platform GPU based terminal. In versions prior to 0.47.2, a local privilege escalation vulnerability exists in kitty's file transmission protocol where a child process running in the terminal can write to arbitrary files on the filesystem by exploiting a TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) race condition between symlink validation and file creation. The `os.open()` call used to create files does not use `O_NOFOLLOW`, allowing an attacker to create a symlink between the initial stat check and the actual file open, causing the write to follow the symlink to an arbitrary destination. Version 0.47.2 fixes the issue.

• How can I get the fixes?
• What do statuses mean?

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Severity score breakdown

CVSS version: CVSS v3.0

References

• MITRE
• NVD
• Launchpad
• Debian

Related Ubuntu Security Notices (USN)

• USN-8763-1
• kitty vulnerabilities
• 15 September 2026

Other references

• https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-54055
• https://github.com/kovidgoyal/kitty/security/advisories/GHSA-q446-x7q6-vcxh