Threats affecting pkg:generic/osquery

### Summary In affected versions, when a connected MCP server declared an `outputSchema` for a tool, the SDK's client validated each `call_tool` result with `jsonschema`'s default resolver, which fetches any `$ref` it cannot resolve locally by opening the URL. A server could therefore put an `http://`, `https://` or `file://` reference in a tool's output schema and make the client: - request that URL, or read that local file, from the client's own network position on every call of the tool (the content was used only as a schema and never sent back to the server), and - stall: the fetch ran synchronously on the event loop with no timeout, so a target that accepted the connection and then went quiet froze every session in the process for as long as it held the connection. ### Am I affected? Yes, if your application uses the SDK as an MCP client (`ClientSession` over any transport, `ClientSessionGroup`, or the 2.x `Client`) and calls tools on servers you do not fully control. There was no setting that turned the validation off. Affected versions: 1.10.0 through 1.29.1, and 2.0.0 through 2.1.1. Not affected: applications that only build servers. If nothing in your code uses `ClientSession`, `ClientSessionGroup` or the 2.x `Client` class, you are not affected. ### Fix Upgrade to `mcp` 1.30.0 (1.x) or 2.2.0 (2.x) or later. The client now resolves references only within the schema document the server sent (plus the standard JSON Schema metaschemas), so result validation performs no network or file access. A tool whose output schema points outside its own document fails at call time with `RuntimeError` (`Invalid schema for tool ...`); in-document references such as `#/$defs/...` work as before. Until you can upgrade, call tools only on servers you trust. As a partial stopgap, skip tools whose `outputSchema` contains an `$id`, or a `$ref` / `$dynamicRef` that does not start with `#`.

### Summary In affected versions, the SDK's Streamable HTTP and SSE client transports followed HTTP redirects to any host. If the configured MCP endpoint answered with a redirect to a different origin: - custom headers set on the client (for example an `X-API-Key` credential) were sent to that origin, and - on a `307` or `308` redirect the request body was re-sent there too. The SDK's OAuth client providers followed redirects on their own discovery, registration and token requests in the same way. A lone `Authorization` bearer header was not exposed; the HTTP library already drops it on cross-origin redirects. Anyone able to make an endpoint you trust redirect elsewhere (a stale redirect to a lapsed domain, a misrouted proxy rule, redirect logic an attacker can influence) could capture that material. A server that is itself malicious gains nothing this way; it already receives your requests directly. ### Am I affected? Yes, if your code uses the SDK as an MCP client over HTTP through any of: - `streamable_http_client` (on 2.x also `Client` given an `http://` or `https://` URL) - `streamablehttp_client` or `sse_client` - `ClientSessionGroup` with HTTP server parameters - the internal `create_mcp_http_client` helper This includes an HTTP client you passed in yourself with `follow_redirects=True`. Affected versions: 1.8.0 through 1.29.1, and 2.0.0 through 2.1.1. Not affected: - MCP servers - stdio clients - a client you supplied with `follow_redirects` left at its default of `False` ### Fix Upgrade to `mcp` 1.30.0 (1.x) or 2.2.0 (2.x) or later; no code changes are needed. The transports, and the OAuth providers' own requests, now follow a redirect only when it stays on the endpoint's origin (same scheme, host and port, or an `http` to `https` upgrade on the same host) and keeps the request method. Any other redirect is not followed and the request fails with an error naming the target (`MCPError` on 2.x, `httpx.HTTPStatusError` on 1.x), whichever HTTP client the transport uses. The internal `create_mcp_http_client` helper no longer turns redirect following on, so code calling it directly now receives the redirect response instead. If your client currently reaches its server through a redirect to another host, including a server that needs no credentials, it will stop connecting after the upgrade: set the endpoint URL to the redirect's target. Until you can upgrade, supply your own HTTP client with `follow_redirects` left at `False` (`http_client=` on `streamable_http_client`; `httpx_client_factory=` on `sse_client` and `streamablehttp_client`; `ClientSessionGroup` has no such parameter). If a client may already have followed a redirect to a host you do not control, rotate the credentials it carried. <details> <summary>If you genuinely need the old behaviour (unsupported)</summary> This restores what this advisory fixes: redirects to any host are followed again, carrying your custom headers and, on `307`/`308`, the request body, OAuth token requests included. Prefer setting the endpoint URL to the redirect's target. If you cannot, and you accept forwarding credentials to the redirect target, give the transport an HTTP client that follows redirects regardless of what the SDK asks for: ```python import httpx2 # on 1.x: import httpx and subclass httpx.AsyncClient instead class FollowRedirectsAnyway(httpx2.AsyncClient): """Follows redirects to ANY origin. Deliberately gives up the SDK's same-origin protection.""" async def send(self, request, *, follow_redirects=False, **kwargs): return await super().send(request, follow_redirects=True, **kwargs) http_client = FollowRedirectsAnyway(timeout=httpx2.Timeout(30, read=300)) # streamable_http_client(url, http_client=http_client) # sse_client / streamablehttp_client take a factory instead: def client_factory(headers=None, timeout=None, auth=None): return FollowRedirectsAnyway(headers=headers, auth=auth, timeout=timeout if timeout is not None else httpx2.Timeout(30, read=300)) # sse_client(url, httpx_client_factory=client_factory) ``` The redirect handling is then the HTTP library's own, as before the fix: a lone `Authorization` header is still dropped on cross-origin hops and `301`/`302`/`303` become `GET`. It is not something the SDK supports or tests. </details> ---

## Summary GitPython's public `Submodule.move()` API verifies that its destination is lexically inside the parent repository, but it does not reject symbolic links in the destination's intermediate components before filesystem operations. On systems that check out Git symlinks, an untrusted repository can therefore redirect a fixed, application-selected move destination outside the parent worktree. The reporter reproduced this on the latest release, GitPython 3.1.62, and current `main`. In the strict scenario, the repository commits `vendor -> ../outside`, while the consuming application independently passes the fixed literal `vendor/module`. `Submodule.move()` follows `vendor`, moves the initialized submodule checkout to `outside/module`, rewrites `.gitmodules` and the index to the symlinked path, and leaves the index unable to produce a tree. The same result occurs when the committed symlink contains an absolute path to an external directory. No attacker-controlled API argument, local symlink planting, race, Git hook, unsafe-option flag, or network access during the proof is required. ## Trust boundary and preconditions The attacker controls: - an untrusted Git repository that the application clones; - a mode-`120000` tracked symlink named `vendor`; - the initialized submodule's content. The consuming application controls the call and uses a fixed layout rule: ```python submodule.move("vendor/module") ``` The trigger requires the application to initialize the submodule and later call `Submodule.move()` with a path below the attacker-committed symlink. Ordinary clone or submodule update does not automatically make this call. Windows was not tested. The primitive applies where Git materializes the tracked entry as a real symlink; on Windows that generally requires `core.symlinks=true` with Developer Mode or sufficient privilege. Configurations that materialize it as an ordinary file do not take this path. ## Product and directly verified revisions - Package: `GitPython` (`pip` ecosystem) - Latest release: 3.1.62, tag commit `db47516dac750c5968b8f6d388b18712c355df50` - Current `main`: `b62e91be897f687a622e40cd1e59c33dce45f124` - Relevant `git/objects/submodule/base.py` SHA-256 in both revisions: `a4355d49e0b75c7c7e74d33ac70ff9550f940c977848c99da40eb41e034b189c` - Upstream state rechecked: 2026-09-10 KST Only these two revisions were directly tested. ## Severity and weakness The demonstrated impact is an integrity boundary violation: repository content selects an existing directory outside the worktree, and GitPython moves an attacker-influenced checkout into a missing or empty child path there with the victim process's permissions. It also removes the original checkout and corrupts the parent repository's index/configuration state. For a downstream service that remotely accepts repositories and performs this exact layout operation with user involvement retained, `AV:N` gives a conditional application-level score of 7.1. A fully automatic service may warrant a different `UI` assessment. The library report uses `AV:L` because the vulnerable API call is a separate application action and is not part of GitPython's ordinary clone/update flow. No confidentiality impact, code execution, overwrite of an existing file, or overwrite of a non-empty directory was demonstrated. ## Reproducer The following script creates only temporary local repositories and a self-generated canary. It passes `protocol.file.allow=always` separately with `-c` on each fixture Git invocation; that permission is process-scoped and is not persisted to global or repository configuration. Run it from a fresh source checkout: ```bash git clone --depth 1 --branch 3.1.62 https://github.com/gitpython-developers/GitPython.git python3 poc.py /path/to/GitPython python3 poc.py --absolute-link /path/to/GitPython ``` `--absolute-link` commits the temporary external directory's absolute path instead of `../outside`. ```python #!/usr/bin/env python3 """Local-only reproducer for GitPython Submodule.move() symlink traversal.""" from __future__ import annotations import argparse import json import subprocess import sys import tempfile from pathlib import Path from typing import Optional def run_git( *args: str, cwd: Optional[Path] = None, check: bool = True ) -> subprocess.CompletedProcess: command = [ "git", "-c", "user.name=GitPython security fixture", "-c", "user.email=fixture@example.invalid", "-c", "protocol.file.allow=always", *args, ] return subprocess.run(command, cwd=cwd, check=check, text=True, capture_output=True) def read_core_worktree(parent) -> str: module_config = Path(parent.git_dir) / "modules" / "logical-name" / "config" return parent.git.config("--file", str(module_config), "--get", "core.worktree") def read_gitmodules_path(parent) -> str: modules_file = Path(parent.working_tree_dir) / ".gitmodules" return parent.git.

GitPython versions up to 3.1.62 contain a vulnerability in the Head.checkout() method where an attacker-controlled branch name can be used to perform an arbitrary file read. This occurs because the branch name is passed as a positional argument to git checkout without proper sanitization or a separator, allowing injection of git options such as --pathspec-from-file. An attacker hosting a repository with a malicious default branch name can cause a consumer application that clones and checks out this branch to read arbitrary files accessible to the process, such as /etc/passwd. The issue is a partial regression of prior fixes and affects all published releases up to 3.1.62. The vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 score of 7.5 (High).

GitPython's Remote.pull() method improperly handles the positional refspec argument, allowing an attacker to inject a --upload-pack option that bypasses the unsafe-option guard. This leads to arbitrary command execution with the privileges of the calling process when using local-path or SSH transports. The vulnerability affects versions from 2.12.0 up to but not including 2.16.0_17 and has a CVSS score of 8.1 (high severity).

GitPython versions >=2.9.0 and <2.16.0_17 contain vulnerabilities where certain command wrapper methods omit checks for unsafe protocols and unsafe options. Specifically, the Git.ls_remote method does not check URLs for unsafe protocols, allowing potential remote code execution (RCE) if the victim's git transport policy permits the 'ext' protocol. The Repo.merge_base and IndexFile.move methods forward caller-controlled arguments to git commands without proper unsafe option checks, creating latent argument-injection surfaces. These issues were verified on the main branch post the latest release and are fixed in version 2.16.0_17.

Cruft's GitPython integration contains a regex vulnerability in the parse_actor_and_date() function that causes quadratic backtracking on malformed author, committer, or tagger identity lines missing or having malformed trailing epoch or timezone data. This results in significant CPU exhaustion when processing crafted commit or tag objects. The issue affects versions from 2.9.0 up to but not including 2.16.0_17 and is fixed in version 2.16.0_17.

### Summary `Repo._clone()`'s handling of `separate_git_dir` never disables `Git.polish_url()`'s environment-variable expansion, unlike every other caller of that helper that handles attacker-influenced data. Since `separate_git_dir` can be derived from an attacker-controlled `.gitmodules` submodule name, a completely ordinary `clone` + `submodule_update(init=True, recursive=True)` on a malicious repository expands an environment variable of the attacker's choosing and exposes its value both as a persistent on-disk directory name and, whenever DEBUG-level logging is enabled (a common CI/verbose-logging configuration), in a `Popen(...)` log line that is not redacted the way credential-bearing arguments are. ### Root cause / Details `git/repo/base.py`'s `_clone()` has: ```python sep_dir = kwargs.get("separate_git_dir") if sep_dir: kwargs["separate_git_dir"] = Git.polish_url(sep_dir) ``` This is the only remaining `Git.polish_url()` call site handling attacker-influenced data that does not pass `expand_vars=False` (there is one other unguarded call site, `clone_path` at line 1537, but its input is the caller's own local destination path, not attacker-controlled). The sibling fixes for `GHSA-94p4-4cq8-9g67`/`GHSA-rwj8-pgh3-r573` added `expand_vars=False` to `clone_url` (5 lines below this one, in the same function), `git/repo/base.py:1599`, `remote.py:814`, and `submodule/base.py:686` — this one did not receive it. (`submodule/root.py` also currently sets `expand_vars=False` at a related call site, but that was added incidentally by a later, unrelated commit, not as part of these security fixes.) `Git.polish_url()`'s docstring itself says: "Disable this for values obtained from an untrusted source, such as remote URLs." Its non-Cygwin branch does plain `os.path.expandvars()` on the entire string, including embedded variables anywhere in an absolute path. `separate_git_dir` reaches `_clone()` from `Submodule._clone_repo()` (`git/objects/submodule/base.py`) as `module_abspath = osp.join(parent_repo.git_dir, "modules", name)`, where `name` is the raw `.gitmodules` submodule section name — fully attacker-controlled content of a cloned repository. `_validated_name()` (added by the fix for `GHSA-hmq2-w58f-27jc`) only rejects names that are absolute, contain a drive letter, or contain `..` path components; it does not reject `$`. `_need_gitfile_submodules()` is true for git ≥ 1.7.5, i.e. the default path for virtually every real-world installation. ### Reproduction (live, against real, unmodified GitPython code, no monkeypatching) Built a hostile repository with a plain, ordinary git command: `git submodule add --name '$GPY_SECRET_MARKER' ../evil_submodule sub`. Set an environment variable in the "victim" process (standing in for a real CI secret such as `AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY`): `GPY_SECRET_MARKER=AKIA_TOTALLY_FAKE_BUT_SECRET_LOOKING_VALUE_12345`. Then ran the exact ordinary workflow the `GHSA-hmq2-w58f-27jc` advisory's own PoC also uses: ```python repo = Repo.clone_from(evil_parent_url, victim_clone_dir) repo.submodule_update(init=True, recursive=True) ``` Observed result (`ls .git/modules/`): ``` .git/modules/AKIA_TOTALLY_FAKE_BUT_SECRET_LOOKING_VALUE_12345/ (a full git repo: HEAD, config, objects/, refs/, hooks/) ``` The literal `$GPY_SECRET_MARKER`-named directory was never created — only the expanded one exists, proving expansion happened before the value reached the `git clone --separate-git-dir=...` subprocess argument. The persistent, expanded-name directory under `.git/modules/` is itself the primary disclosure channel — it survives on disk for as long as the clone does. A second, independent channel: with the `git.cmd`/`git.repo.base` loggers at DEBUG level (a common CI/verbose-logging setting, not requiring any special flag), GitPython's own `Popen(...)` debug log line prints the fully expanded `--separate-git-dir=<value>` subprocess argument verbatim — `remove_password_if_present()` only redacts URL passwords/Authorization headers, not path-style arguments like this one, so the expanded value is not scrubbed. (The call also fails downstream with an `OSError`/`FileNotFoundError` referencing the original, unexpanded name, since `_write_git_file_and_module_config()` looks for a directory using the pre-expansion name — but that error message itself does not contain the expanded/secret value.) **Control**: the same call with an ordinary (no `$`) submodule name succeeds normally and creates `.git/modules/<name>` as expected — isolating the gap to submodule names containing environment-variable syntax specifically. ### Already-known check Checked all 35 published `gitpython-developers/GitPython` security advisories in full text. `GHSA-hmq2-w58f-27jc` covers the same `name` → `.git/modules/<name>` path but for path-traversal (`../../..`), not variable expansion. `GHSA-59cr-6r3x-644w` covers the sibling `path` field reaching unguarded `os.makedirs()`. `GHSA-94p4-4cq8-9g67`/`GHSA-rwj8-pgh3-r573` co

The msgpack-python C extension has an unbounded memory leak triggered when deserialization rejects a map key under strict_map_key validation. This leak occurs because the decoded map value is not released on error, causing process memory growth and potential denial of service. Additionally, the streaming Unpacker API may suffer from a use-after-free or double decrement issue due to stale parser-stack references. The pure-Python fallback does not exhibit this leak. The issue affects msgpack-python version 1.2.2 and development commits, with a fix available in version 13.8.0_3 of the affected product.

### Impact A maliciously crafted DNS message may cause dns.name.from_wire_parser() to use excessive CPU for DNS name decompression. Applications that process untrusted DNS wire form messages with dnspython may be degraded or DoS'd by the extra CPU use required. ### Patches This problem is fixed in dnspython 2.9.0. ### Workarounds There are no known workarounds. ### Credit Evgenios Gkritsis, Department of Informatics, University of Piraeus & Athena Research Center, Greece Constantinos Patsakis, Department of Informatics, University of Piraeus & Athena Research Center, Greece George Stergiopoulos, Department of Informatics, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece

`SoftReadWriteLock` (and `AsyncSoftReadWriteLock`, which wraps one) checks once per lock object, by name, that `<path>.rw`, `<path>.rw/gen` and `<path>.rw/holders` are real directories and not symbolic links (files that redirect to another path). It then keeps only a boolean. Every later record operation resolves the full path again, and `O_NOFOLLOW` (a flag that makes an open fail when the final name is a symbolic link) protects the last component only. Another local user (the other user below) who can write the directory holding the lock, or who created `<path>.rw` first in a sticky directory such as `/tmp` (the sticky bit is a directory flag that lets only a file's owner rename or remove it), can put a tree under that name whose `gen` or `holders` is a symbolic link into a directory of the user running the lock (the lock user below). A long-running process of the lock user that has already passed the check then creates, renames over and deletes files there with the lock user's privileges, including in `0700` directories the other user cannot open. The names and bytes are filelock's own lock records, not chosen by the other user. The scanner's reproducer replaces `.git/HEAD` in the lock user's private repository so that `git status` fails. There is no race. Affected versions: filelock >= 4.1.0 and <= 4.2.0. Anthropic's OSS Scanner reported it in private as `ANT-2026-WXXRI4M4` [high, CWE-367], titled "SoftReadWriteLock follows gen dir swapped for a symlink after first acquire". ## Severity **CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N, 3.3 (Low).** `AV:L` (local): the other user needs an account on the same host. `AC:L` (low attack complexity): the swap happens between two acquisitions, with no race to win. `PR:L` (low privileges): a local user with ordinary privileges is enough. `UI:N` (no user interaction): the lock user's process acts on its own. `C:N` (no confidentiality impact): the other user learns nothing. `I:L` (low integrity impact): the lock user's process replaces a file named `HEAD`, creates `epoch` and generation records, and deletes files whose names match the protocol's patterns, in any directory the lock user can write, with the lock user's privileges. The other user does not choose the bytes, but the files are gone and the chosen directory (a git repository) stops working. `A:N` (no availability impact): the lock itself keeps working and the lock user's process does not stall. The scanner rated it high; we scored the vector for a lock user with ordinary privileges. Classification from the external review: conditional security. It is a cross-user replacement of a cached `.rw` tree that redirects later writes of the lock user through an intermediate symbolic link. It needs a planted tree in sticky `/tmp` or a writable parent without the sticky bit. Scoring note: we rate integrity low rather than high. The bytes written through the swapped tree are filelock's own records, not content the other user chose, so the lower reading of the CVSS integrity metric applies. ## Scope and preconditions - Trust boundary: the other party is a different local account with write access to the lock's parent directory. Without the sticky bit (a `0777` scratch or spool directory, or a group-writable project or cache directory shared with that account's group) write access alone is enough. The other user renames the lock user's own `0700` `<path>.rw` aside and puts its tree in place. In a sticky parent such as `/tmp` the extra precondition is that it created `<path>.rw` (with real `gen` and `holders` directories, mode `0777`) before the lock user's first acquire. `prepare()` accepts an existing tree whoever owns it, and the other user later replaces its own `gen` with a symbolic link. `fs.protected_symlinks=1` (a Linux setting that refuses to follow another user's symbolic link in a world-writable sticky directory) does not intervene, because the link sits inside the other user's own non-sticky `<path>.rw`, not in the sticky parent (the scanner ran with that setting). - Lock user: any process that keeps one `SoftReadWriteLock` or `AsyncSoftReadWriteLock` object (a singleton per path by default) and acquires it more than once, or is waiting for it when the swap happens. A fresh process that meets the planted tree gets `RuntimeError`. Between two acquisitions there is no timing to win. - Targets: any directory the lock user can write, on any filesystem. The other user needs only to know its path (`/home/victim/project/.git` in the reproducer, under a `0700` home directory the other user cannot open). - Platform: observed on Linux. The code path is the same on every POSIX platform and on Windows, where a junction (a Windows directory that points at another directory) at a directory component plays the symbolic link's part. The scanner ran Linux only. - Ancestor boundary: protection against another local user is possible only while no other user can replace the lock's directory or any of its ancestors. That

`SoftFileLock`, `MarkerSoftFileLock`, `SoftFileLease`, their async variants and a `FileLock` that has fallen back to a soft lock on `ENOSYS` decide from the record inside the marker file whether its owner is gone. The marker is the file whose presence says a process holds the lock. They do not check who could have written that record. A local user who can write the marker but cannot remove it rewrites the holder's record to name a dead PID (process id). That position arises with an explicit `mode` with group or other write bits, or the default mode under a lax umask (the process setting that strips permission bits from new files), in a sticky or otherwise non-removable directory. The sticky bit is a directory flag that lets only a file's owner remove or rename it. The next contender running as the holder's account, or root, judges the lock stale, removes the live marker on that user's behalf and acquires it. Two processes then run the critical section together and neither gets an error. Affected versions are filelock 3.22.0 through 4.2.0 (finding `ANT-2026-W1H9NXUH`). ## Severity **CVSS 3.1 `CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N` scores 4.7 (Medium).** `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 marker must carry group or other write bits (an explicit permissive `mode`, or umask `002`/`000` with a shared group), and a contender of the holder's account must ask for the lock while the forged record is in place. `I:H` (high integrity impact): two holders then write whatever the lock protects, and the holder is not told. `C:N` and `A:N` (no confidentiality or availability impact). `S:U` (scope unchanged). Classification from the review: **security, conditional** on another user being able to write the live marker. The scanner rated it high (CWE-345). The default mode under umask `022` is not affected. ## Scope and preconditions - The other user can write the marker. The application passes a `mode` with group or other write bits, which `fchmod` applies as given since 4.1.0. `0o666` is a common choice for a lock shared between accounts, although a soft-lock contender of another account waits as well on a `0o644` marker, since contenders only read and rename. Or the application uses the default mode (`0o666` through the umask) under umask `002` in a directory whose group the other user belongs to, or under umask `000`. The default mode under umask `022` is not affected. - The other user cannot remove the marker itself: the directory is sticky, or the other user cannot write it at all (a `0755` directory owned by the lock's user gives the same overlap). In a non-sticky shared directory the other user can unlink the marker without filelock, and filelock adds nothing. - A contender that may rename the marker asks for the lock: another process of the holder's account (several workers of one user) or root. A contender of another unprivileged account cannot rename the marker in a sticky directory and times out. - The finding reaches every class that publishes a soft marker: `SoftFileLock`, `MarkerSoftFileLock`, `SoftFileLease`, their async variants, and `FileLock(mode=0o666)` on a filesystem where `flock` (a kernel lock on an open file) fails with `ENOSYS`. These protections against another local user hold only when no other user can replace the lock's directory or any of its ancestors. That holds when each ancestor belongs to the user or root and is either not writable by others or sticky. A user who can rename entries in a non-sticky directory above the lock controls every name below it, which no file-based lock can defend against. ## Affected code At the scanned commit b831496: the create mode in [`SoftFileLock._acquire`](https://github.com/tox-dev/filelock/blob/b831496b0273ecd11bf02b8d080ca8b673a538c1/src/filelock/_soft.py#L67-L71), the explicit-mode `fchmod` in [`_apply_explicit_mode`](https://github.com/tox-dev/filelock/blob/b831496b0273ecd11bf02b8d080ca8b673a538c1/src/filelock/_soft.py#L100-L105), the trusting verdict in [`_try_break_stale_lock`](https://github.com/tox-dev/filelock/blob/b831496b0273ecd11bf02b8d080ca8b673a538c1/src/filelock/_soft.py#L107-L123) and the [`owner_is_stale`](https://github.com/tox-dev/filelock/blob/b831496b0273ecd11bf02b8d080ca8b673a538c1/src/filelock/_identity.py#L64-L79) it relies on; the same call in [`MarkerSoftFileLock`](https://github.com/tox-dev/filelock/blob/b831496b0273ecd11bf02b8d080ca8b673a538c1/src/filelock/_marker.py#L74-L81) and [`SoftFileLease`](https://github.com/tox-dev/filelock/blob/b831496b0273ecd11bf02b8d080ca8b673a538c1/src/filelock/_lease.py#L229-L256). ## Introduced The stale verdict that trusts the record came in with e35c3afac473 ("feat(soft): detect and break stale locks", #476, 2026-02-13), first released in 3.22.0. From then on a marker left group- or other-writable by the umask is forgeable. The re

`StrictSoftFileLock` and `AsyncStrictSoftFileLock` check `<path>.filelock` (the coordination directory that holds the lock's state) with one `lstat` call on its name. `lstat` reports what a name is without following a symbolic link (a file that redirects to another path). After that check, the code reaches `<path>.filelock/claims` by pathname for every later operation (`mkdir`, scan, publish, link, unlink). `_open_directory` passes `O_NOFOLLOW` (a flag that makes an open fail when the final name is a symbolic link), but the flag covers only the final `claims` component. The kernel follows a symbolic link in any earlier component. Another local user (the other user below) who can rename `<path>.filelock` exchanges it for a symbolic link after the check. In a shared directory without the sticky bit (a directory flag that lets only a file's owner rename or remove it), any user with write access can do this. Where the shared directory is sticky, such as `/tmp`, only the user who created `<path>.filelock` before the user running the lock (the lock user below) first used it can. The lock user's process (root's, if root takes the lock) then creates a `claims` directory and claim files (the files whose presence says a process wants or holds the lock) inside a directory the other user chooses but only the lock user can write. When the link points at another strict lock's `.filelock` directory, the stranded claims make that lock time out for every process until an operator finds and force-breaks each one. The `claims` property and `force_break()` resolve the same path with no check at all. Affected versions: filelock >= 3.30.0 and <= 4.2.0 (finding `ANT-2026-SVFEYX89`). ## Severity **CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:H, 5.8 (Medium).** `AV:L` (local): the other user needs an account on the same host. `AC:H` (high attack complexity): the swap must land between the `lstat` and the next `mkdir`. The other user does not aim at that window. It flips the name in a loop with `renameat2(RENAME_EXCHANGE)` (a system call that swaps two names in one step) across repeated acquires, and won after 1 to 31 runs of the lock user's program in the scanner's trials. A sticky directory also requires it to have created `<path>.filelock` first. `PR:L` (low privileges): an unprivileged account is enough. `UI:N` (no user interaction): the lock user's process acts on its own. `C:L` (low confidentiality impact): through `claims`, one file name per planted link from a directory only the lock user can list. `I:L` (low integrity impact): a directory named `claims` and files with filelock's fixed claim names and contents appear, created with the lock user's privileges, in a directory the other user chooses but cannot write. The process overwrites or truncates nothing that exists. `A:H` (high availability impact): aimed at another strict lock of the lock user, the stranded claims deny that lock to every process until an operator finds and force-breaks each one. Classification from the review: security, conditional on the other user being able to rename the intermediate component. The scanner rated it high (CWE-363). ## Scope and preconditions - The other user can rename `<path>.filelock`. In a writable directory without the sticky bit (a `0777` or group-writable project or cache directory), any user with write permission on the directory can, even though the lock user created and owns `<path>.filelock`. In a sticky directory such as `/tmp`, only the user who created `<path>.filelock` before the lock user's first use can, because that user then owns both the directory and the symbolic link (the planting precondition of GHSA-9c4x-gm8v-wgc4). - The link's target is a directory the lock user can write. The effect that matters is on that directory. An acquire that completes through the link also holds the shared lock with its claims elsewhere, but a user who can rename `<path>.filelock` can defeat that lock's exclusion anyway. - `fs.protected_symlinks=1` (a Linux setting that refuses to follow another user's symbolic link in a world-writable sticky directory) does not interfere. The link is an intermediate path component, not the last one. In the sticky-directory case it also sits in a directory the other user owns. - Missed attempts show up to the lock user as `SoftFileLockProtocolError` or `FileNotFoundError`. The swap therefore works against a lock that a program takes more than once: a periodic job, a worker pool, or a caller that retries or waits with a timeout (each poll of a waiting acquisition is a new attempt). - The two entry points that need no race (`claims` and `force_break()` on a resting symbolic link) depend on the lock user inspecting or recovering the lock. The planted link invites this by making `acquire()` fail with a protocol error. The `force_break()` variant works only when the lock user breaks claims that name a live process on its own host without checking them first, as the recovery loop in `docs/tutorials.rst

### Summary `ReadWriteLock` and `AsyncReadWriteLock` resolve the lock path with `pathlib.Path.resolve()` and pass it to `sqlite3.connect()` without refusing a symlink. A local user who can create names in the lock's directory, such as `/tmp` or a shared cache, can plant a symlink at the lock path and make the victim's process create, lock, or write the file it points to, or break mutual exclusion between the victim's own processes. ### Details `ReadWriteLock.__init__` stores `pathlib.Path(lock_file).resolve()`, which follows a final symlink, and every connection opens that path through `sqlite3.connect()` with no `O_NOFOLLOW` or regular-file check. SQLite's own VFS also resolves the final symlink in user space, so `fs.protected_symlinks` and the sticky bit do not help: the kernel never sees a symlink to refuse. The other lock classes do not follow a final symlink: `FileLock` opens with `O_NOFOLLOW`, and `SoftReadWriteLock` coordinates through `<path>.rw/`. ### Proof of concept On Linux, with the victim and attacker as different users and `/shared` mode 1777 with `fs.protected_symlinks=1`: 1. The attacker runs `ln -s /home/victim/private/pwned.flag /shared/app.rwlock.db`. 2. The victim constructs `ReadWriteLock("/shared/app.rwlock.db")`. A plain `os.open(..., O_NOFOLLOW)` on the same path fails, but the lock creates `/home/victim/private/pwned.flag`, owned by the victim, inside a directory the attacker cannot write. 3. With `/shared/cache.rwlock.db -> /shared/a.db`, one victim process holds the write lock. The attacker repoints the link to `/shared/b.db`, and a second victim process acquires the write lock while the first still holds it. The same behavior reproduces on macOS, on Windows 11, and through `AsyncReadWriteLock`. ### Impact A local attacker with write access to the lock directory can make the victim create empty files it owns at paths the attacker cannot write, make the victim hold a SQLite lock on another application's database so that application gets `database is locked`, and give two victim processes the write lock at once, letting them corrupt the resource the lock protects. ### Workarounds Keep `ReadWriteLock` paths in directories that only trusted users can write.