GNU nano creates the user’s ~/.local directory with overly permissive permissions when the directory does not exist yet. On first use of features requiring Cross-Desktop Group (XDG) data storage, nano explicitly requests directory mode 0777, making the directory world‑writable in environments where the process umask does not sufficiently restrict permissions.
In systems with a relaxed or zero umask, such as container environments, CI/CD runners, embedded systems, or user shells configured with umask 000, this results in ~/.local being created as world‑writable. A local attacker can exploit a race window between nano’s creation of ~/.local and its subsequent creation of more restrictive subdirectories to write attacker‑controlled files into the victim’s XDG directory hierarchy.
This problem was fixed in nano version 9.0
Metrics
Affected Vendors & Products
References
History
Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:15:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
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| First Time appeared |
Gnu
Gnu nano |
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| Vendors & Products |
Gnu
Gnu nano |
Tue, 28 Apr 2026 14:30:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | GNU nano creates the user’s ~/.local directory with overly permissive permissions when the directory does not exist yet. On first use of features requiring Cross-Desktop Group (XDG) data storage, nano explicitly requests directory mode 0777, making the directory world‑writable in environments where the process umask does not sufficiently restrict permissions. In systems with a relaxed or zero umask, such as container environments, CI/CD runners, embedded systems, or user shells configured with umask 000, this results in ~/.local being created as world‑writable. A local attacker can exploit a race window between nano’s creation of ~/.local and its subsequent creation of more restrictive subdirectories to write attacker‑controlled files into the victim’s XDG directory hierarchy. This problem was fixed in nano version 9.0 | |
| Title | Insecure Directory Permissions in GNU nano Leading to Privilege Abuse | |
| Weaknesses | CWE-732 | |
| References |
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| Metrics |
cvssV4_0
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Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: CERT-PL
Published:
Updated: 2026-04-28T14:28:55.143Z
Reserved: 2026-04-14T09:44:32.553Z
Link: CVE-2026-40556
No data.
Status : Received
Published: 2026-04-28T15:16:30.150
Modified: 2026-04-28T15:16:30.150
Link: CVE-2026-40556
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
Updated: 2026-04-28T16:00:12Z