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VulnerabilityPublished

Strands Agents: Local Privilege Escalation via Symlink Attack in Default Session File Storage

Affects strands-agentsSource GCVE Database

0

CVSS 7.1 High : upgrade to 1.48.0 soon.

Data as of 27 Oct 2026, 16:29 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score
7.1High
How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.
Patch
Available – fixed in 1.48.0
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

What to do

Upgrade strands-agents to 1.48.0.

Affected software

ProductAffectedFixed in
PyPIstrands-agentsAffected
  • <1.48.0
Fixed in
  • 1.48.0

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AI-suggested

A patch is available in strands-agents version 1.48.0 that addresses this vulnerability. Users should upgrade to version 1.48.0 or later. The fix includes changing the default session storage directory to a user-private location, using os.open() with flags that prevent following symlinks, employing tempfile.mkstemp() for atomic writes, verifying directory ownership before writing, and adding optional integrity verification on session files. Until upgraded, users should avoid running the agent in environments where local attackers can create symlinks in the session directory.

Description

The strands-agents FileSessionManager stores session data in a world-writable directory (/tmp/strands/sessions/) using predictable file paths and writes that follow symbolic links. This allows a local attacker to create symlinks to arbitrary files, causing the application to overwrite those files with attacker-controlled session data. This can lead to local privilege escalation by overwriting shell configuration files, SSH keys, cron jobs, or systemd user services. Additionally, the lack of integrity verification on session files enables persistent prompt injection attacks by tampering with session data.

References

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