CVE-2024-5742 Path traversal in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10

Medium 6.7 Published 12 Jun 2024 Updated 15 Oct 2026

Attackers can escalate privileges by replacing Nano emergency files with malicious symlinks during a race condition after a crash.

Exploited in the wild: Not known
Login needed: Any signed-in user
Attackable: Local or same network only
Victim action needed: A user has to click or open something
Fix: Available

What is CVE-2024-5742?

CVE-2024-5742 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Redhat Enterprise Linux, published on 12 Jun 2024. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

Official description

A vulnerability was found in GNU Nano that allows a possible privilege escalation through an insecure temporary file. If Nano is killed while editing, a file it saves to an emergency file with the permissions of the running user provides a window of opportunity for attackers to escalate privileges through a malicious symlink.

Weakness: CWE-59

Which versions are affected by CVE-2024-5742?

It affects 2 products.

Linux distribution packages (19)

`nano` AlmaLinux:8	All versions	`2.9.8-3.el8_10`
`nano` AlmaLinux:9	All versions	`5.6.1-6.el9`
`nano` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.8-3.el8_10`
`nano-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.8-3.el8_10`
`nano-debugsource` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:8::baseos	All versions	`0:2.9.8-3.el8_10`
`nano` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos	All versions	`0:5.6.1-6.el9`
`nano-debuginfo` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos	All versions	`0:5.6.1-6.el9`
`nano-debugsource` Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::baseos	All versions	`0:5.6.1-6.el9`
`nano` Rocky Linux:8	All versions	`0:2.9.8-3.el8_10`
`nano` Rocky Linux:9	All versions	`0:5.6.1-6.el9`
`nano` SUSE:Package Hub 15 SP5	All versions	`7.2-bp156.3.3.1`
`nano` SUSE:Package Hub 15 SP5	All versions	`7.2-bp156.3.3.1`
`nano` SUSE:Package Hub 15 SP6	All versions	`7.2-bp156.3.3.1`
`nano` SUSE:Package Hub 15 SP6	All versions	`7.2-bp156.3.3.1`
`nano` openSUSE:Leap 15.5	All versions	`7.2-bp156.3.3.1`
`nano` openSUSE:Leap 15.5	All versions	`7.2-bp156.3.3.1`
`nano` openSUSE:Leap 15.6	All versions	`7.2-bp156.3.3.1`
`nano` openSUSE:Leap 15.6	All versions	`7.2-bp156.3.3.1`
`nano` openSUSE:Tumbleweed	All versions	`8.0-2.1`

Products include Gnu Nano, Redhat Enterprise Linux.

How do I fix CVE-2024-5742?

Apply the vendor's patch.

Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.

Is CVE-2024-5742 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2024-5742 in the wild and no public exploit code.

All Redhat Enterprise Linux vulnerabilities

Sources

Also known as ALSA-2024:6986, ALSA-2024:9430, AZL-42612, AZL-42619, BELL-CVE-2024-5742, CLSA-2026-1779122764 and 15 more.