CVE-2025-68146: Shodan · filelock has a TOCTOU race condition which allows symlink attacks during lock file creation
Affects shodanSource GCVE Database
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.3 Medium : upgrade to 1.31.0_7 when convenient.
Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 06:59 UTC
- EPSS
- 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 9% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
- Patch
- Available – fixed in 1.31.0_7
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:HExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 16 Dec 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: 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 29 Oct 2026.
What to do
Upgrade shodan to 1.31.0_7.
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
Homebrewshodanpkg:brew/shodanOther threats | Affected
| Fixed in
|
Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.
AI-suggested
A fix is available in filelock version 3.20.1 and later. Users should upgrade immediately to this version to fully mitigate the vulnerability. If upgrading is not possible immediately, partial mitigations include using SoftFileLock instead of UnixFileLock/WindowsFileLock, restricting permissions on lock file directories to prevent untrusted symlink creation, and monitoring lock directories for suspicious symlinks. However, these workarounds do not fully eliminate the race condition and upgrading remains strongly recommended.
Description
CVE-2025-68146 is a Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race condition in the filelock library affecting Unix, Linux, macOS, and Windows. It allows local attackers with filesystem access and symlink creation ability to exploit a race window during lock file creation, causing arbitrary user files to be truncated or corrupted via symlink attacks. This impacts dependent software such as virtualenv, PyTorch, poetry, and tox. The vulnerability is fixed in filelock version 3.20.1 by preventing symlink following during file open operations.
References
- github.com/tox-dev/filelock/security/advisories/GHSA-w853-jp5j-5j7f (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/tox-dev/filelock/commit/4724d7f8c3393ec1f048c93933e6e3e6ec321f0e (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/tox-dev/filelock (opens in a new tab)
- github.com/tox-dev/filelock/releases/tag/3.20.1 (opens in a new tab)
- learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/fileio/file-attribute-constants (opens in a new tab)
- pubs.opengroup.org/onlinepubs/9699919799/functions/open.html (opens in a new tab)