CVE Watchtower

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CVE-2026-39860NVD

Vulnerability Summary

Nix is a package manager for Linux and other Unix systems. A bug in the fix for CVE-2024-27297 allowed for arbitrary overwrites of files writable by the Nix process orchestrating the builds (typically the Nix daemon running as root in multi-user installations) by following symlinks during fixed-output derivation output registration. This affects sandboxed Linux builds - sandboxed macOS builds are unaffected. The location of the temporary output used for the output copy was located inside the build chroot. A symlink, pointing to an arbitrary location in the filesystem, could be created by the derivation builder at that path. During output registration, the Nix process (running in the host mount namespace) would follow that symlink and overwrite the destination with the derivation's output contents. In multi-user installations, this allows all users able to submit builds to the Nix daemon (allowed-users - defaulting to all users) to gain root privileges by modifying sensitive files. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.34.5, 2.33.4, 2.32.7, 2.31.4, 2.30.4, 2.29.3, and 2.28.6.
Severity Level
CRITICAL(9.0)
Published Date
Apr 8, 2026
Last Modified
Jul 24, 2026
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation yet
EPSS Score (30-Day)
0.19%Probability
Root Weakness (CWE)
Refer to the official MITRE database for detailed architectural specifications regarding this weakness.
CVSS v3.1 Base Metrics — Score 9.0 (CRITICAL)
Attack VectorLocal
Attack ComplexityLow
Privileges RequiredNone
User InteractionNone
ScopeChanged
ConfidentialityHigh
IntegrityHigh
AvailabilityNone

Affected & Patched Versions

Affected Versions
  • Nixos Nix >= 2.18.2 and <= 2.18.9
  • Nixos Nix >= 2.19.4 and <= 2.19.7
  • Nixos Nix >= 2.20.5 and <= 2.20.9
  • Nixos Nix >= 2.21.0 and < 2.28.6
  • Nixos Nix >= 2.29.0 and < 2.29.3
  • Nixos Nix >= 2.30.0 and < 2.30.4
  • Nixos Nix >= 2.31.0 and < 2.31.4
  • Nixos Nix >= 2.32.0 and < 2.32.7
  • Nixos Nix >= 2.33.0 and < 2.33.4
  • Nixos Nix >= 2.34.0 and < 2.34.5
Patched Versions
  • Nixos Nix 2.28.6
  • Nixos Nix 2.29.3
  • Nixos Nix 2.30.4
  • Nixos Nix 2.31.4
  • Nixos Nix 2.32.7
  • Nixos Nix 2.33.4
  • Nixos Nix 2.34.5
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🎁7-Day Free Trial — Try Pro or Team, no card required.
📧Email Delivery — Threat intel straight to your inbox.
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🚨All New CVEs — Be the first to know.
📈EPSS Spike Alerts — Catch rising risk before it peaks.
🎯Custom EPSS/CVSS — Filter noise, focus on risk.
🛡️Exploit Intel — A 2nd confirmed-exploit signal beyond KEV.
🐙GitHub Issues — Auto-tracked, no duplicates.
📬Weekly Digest — One clean summary, not inbox spam.
🏷️Watchlist Groups — Tag alerts by team (Infra/AppSec/SOC).
💬Webhooks — Slack & Teams integration.
🔀Smart Routing — Critical alerts to one channel, rest to another.
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