High severity · published Apr 8, 2026
CVE-2026-39860
Nix sandbox escape: file write via symlink at FOD `.tmp` copy destination
8.4
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
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.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
None
Scope
Changed
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 9% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
NI
nix · NixOS
>= 2.21, < 2.28.6; >= 2.29.0, < 2.29.3; >= 2.30.0, < 2.30.4; >= 2.31.0, < 2.31.4; >= 2.32.0, < 2.32.7; >= 2.33.0, < 2.33.4; +4 more · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-39860
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-39860
Patch
https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/244f3eee0bbc7f11e9b383a15ed7368e2c4becc9
Patch
https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/4bc5a3510fa3735798f9ed3a2a30a3ea7b32343a
Patch
https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/7794354a982449927ee7401cdeb573ddd16c4688
Patch
https://github.com/NixOS/nix/commit/a3163b9eabb952b4aa96e376dea95ebcca97b31a
Issue Tracking
https://github.com/NixOS/nix/pull/10178
Mitigation
https://github.com/NixOS/nix/security/advisories/GHSA-g3g9-5vj6-r3gj
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