CVE-2026-112912VulnerabilityPublished 28 Oct 2026

filelock: Symlink swap during SoftFileLock's writability check leaks whether a path exists and is writable by the lock

Affects filelockSource GCVE Database

Authoritative record:CVE-2026-112912· Low 2.5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 2.5 Low : upgrade to 4.2.1 when convenient.

Data as of 28 Oct 2026, 22:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

2.5Low

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

Patch: Available – fixed in 4.2.1

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: High
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: Low
Integrity: None
Availability: None

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: High: A successful attack depends on conditions beyond the attacker's control. That is, a successful attack cannot be accomplished at will, but requires the attacker to invest in some measurable amount of effort in preparation or execution against the vulnerable component before a successful attack can be expected. For example, a successful attack may require an attacker to: gather knowledge about the environment in which the vulnerable target/component exists; prepare the target environment to improve exploit reliability; or inject themselves into the logical network path between the target and the resource requested by the victim in order to read and/or modify network communications (e.g., a man in the middle attack).
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: Low: There is some loss of confidentiality. Access to some restricted information is obtained, but the attacker does not have control over what information is obtained, or the amount or kind of loss is limited. The information disclosure does not cause a direct, serious loss to the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 20 Oct 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade filelock to 4.2.1.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
PyPIfilelock	Affected >=3.32.6 <4.2.1	Fixed in 4.2.1

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

Description

`raise_on_not_writable_file()` is the check that `SoftFileLock` and the locks sharing its acquire path run before every attempt. It looks at the lock path with `os.lstat`, so that it judges a planted symlink (a file that points at another path) by itself. When the node has no owner-write bit, it then calls `os.access(filename, os.W_OK)`, which follows symlinks. A local user who can create entries in the lock's directory can swap the path between a mode-`0466` file and a symlink to a path of their choosing. The second call then reports on the symlink's target with the permissions of the user running the lock (below: the lock user). The lock user's `acquire()` ends in `PermissionError` within a fraction of a second when the target is missing or not writable by the lock user, and in the ordinary `Timeout` otherwise. That yields one bit per watched acquire. The bit says whether a path exists and is writable by the lock taker. It covers paths under directories the other user cannot search, or any path when root takes the lock. The lock does not open, create or modify anything through the symlink. On Linux, `fs.protected_symlinks` (a kernel setting that refuses to follow another user's symlink in a sticky world-writable directory) blocks it in a directory such as `/tmp`. It does not block it in a `0777` directory without the sticky bit (a directory flag that lets only a file's owner remove or rename it) or in a sticky group-writable one. This reopens the leak PR #567 closed. Affected versions are filelock 3.32.6 through 4.2.0. Anthropic's OSS Scanner reported this in private. Finding covered by this advisory: - `ANT-2026-RQ91AXTW` [medium, CWE-59]: Symlink TOCTOU in raise_on_not_writable_file leaks file existence. ## Severity **CVSS 3.1 `CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N` scores 2.5 (Low).** `AV:L` (local): the other user needs an account on the same host. `PR:L` (low privileges): an ordinary account is enough. `UI:N` (no user interaction). `AC:H` (high attack complexity): the swap has to land between two system calls a few bytecodes apart (6 to 12 % of back-to-back acquires with the other user on a second CPU, 1 in 8 000 on one CPU), and the other user has to observe how the lock user's acquire ended. `C:L` (partial confidentiality impact): one bit per acquire (existence or writability of a chosen path), no content. `I:N` and `A:N` (no integrity or availability impact). `S:U` (scope unchanged). Classification from the review: **security, conditional**, "a one-bit probe of a victim-only path" that "Linux protected symlinks block in the common sticky `/tmp` case, but not every shared directory". The scanner rated this medium. The maintainers score it low for the complexity and the one-bit yield. ## Scope and preconditions - The affected classes are `SoftFileLock` and everything that reuses its `_acquire`: `MarkerSoftFileLock`, `SoftFileLease`, the async soft locks, and `FileLock` after an `ENOSYS` fallback to a soft lock. `UnixFileLock` itself does not call the helper. `WindowsFileLock._acquire()` does, but on Windows `os.access` reads the link's own read-only attribute and does not follow it; that branch did not run. - The other user must be able to create entries in the lock's directory. With Linux defaults (`fs.protected_symlinks=1`) the kernel refuses the lock user's attempt to follow another user's symlink in a directory that is both sticky and world-writable. `/tmp` therefore gives `PermissionError` for every target and leaks nothing. A `0777` directory without the sticky bit, or a sticky group-writable one (`1770` with a shared group), has no such cover and leaks as described. macOS and the BSDs have no `fs.protected_symlinks`, and a symlink there has mode bits of its own, so one without the owner-write bit would reach `os.access` with no swap at all (not executed). - The swap is practical only with a second CPU for the other user. - The other user needs to see how the lock user's acquire ended, for example the exception in a shared log, an exit status, or when the job stopped (`PermissionError` ends a blocking acquire within about a second; the other case runs to its timeout). The scanner also observed a variant that needs no output from the lock user. Hold the soft lock, set the marker (the lock file whose presence says a process holds the lock) to mode `0o066`, swap the symlink in and out for a few seconds, release, and see whether a marker owned by the other uid appears. A contender still waiting takes the lock; one that raised is gone. - The `O_NOFOLLOW` open that follows the check is not affected. The lock does not read, create or modify anything through the symlink. ## Affected code Scanned commit `b831496b0273`: in `raise_on_not_writable_file`, the [`os.lstat` that states the invariant](https://github.com/tox-dev/filelock/blob/b831496b0273ecd11bf02b8d080ca8b673a538c1/src/filelock/_util.py#L46-L50) and the [`os.access` call that follows symlinks](https://github.com/tox-dev/filel

CWE-59Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following') (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumOWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
The product attempts to access a file based on the filename, but it does not properly prevent that filename from identifying a link or shortcut that resolves to an unintended resource.
Architecture and Design · Separation of Privilege
Follow the principle of least privilege when assigning access rights to entities in a software system.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Symlink Attack (opens in a new tab)
Using Malicious Files (opens in a new tab)
Leverage Executable Code in Non-Executable Files (opens in a new tab)
Manipulating Web Input to File System Calls (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

Loading reviews…

Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

WeaknessesCWE-59

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats