CVE-2025-52991 Race condition in Nix
Standard users can manipulate world-writable temporary build directories in Nix, Lix, and Guix to cause unauthorized actions or data manipulation.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2025-52991?
CVE-2025-52991 is a low-severity vulnerability in NixOS Nix, published on 27 Jun 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
The Nix, Lix, and Guix package managers default to using temporary build directories in a world-readable and world-writable location. This allows standard users to deceive the package manager into using directories with pre-existing content, potentially leading to unauthorized actions or data manipulation. This affects Nix before 2.24.15, 2.26.4, 2.28.4, and 2.29.1; Lix before 2.91.2, 2.92.2, and 2.93.1; and Guix before 1.4.0-38.0e79d5b.
Weakness: CWE-276
Which versions are affected by CVE-2025-52991?
How do I fix CVE-2025-52991?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Is CVE-2025-52991 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2025-52991 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2025-52991, GHSA-8vh4-gppm-m3jm, UBUNTU-CVE-2025-52991.