CVE-2026-32116 Magic Wormhole: "wormhole receive" allows arbitrary local file overwrite
A malicious sender can overwrite critical local files like SSH keys during reception, potentially compromising the receiver's system.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Over the internet
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-32116?
CVE-2026-32116 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in magic-wormhole, published on 12 Mar 2026. Any signed-in user can exploit it over the network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
Magic Wormhole makes it possible to get arbitrary-sized files and directories from one computer to another. From 0.21.0 to before 0.23.0, receiving a file (wormhole receive) from a malicious party could result in overwriting critical local files, including ~/.ssh/authorized_keys and .bashrc. This could be used to compromise the receiver's computer. Only the sender of the file (the party who runs wormhole send) can mount the attack. Other parties (including the transit/relay servers) are excluded by the wormhole protocol. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.23.0.
Weakness: CWE-22
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-32116?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including magic-wormhole. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
magic-wormhole PyPI | From 0.21.0 | 0.23.0 |
magic-wormhole PyPI | From 0.21.0 | 0.23.0 |
magic-wormhole PyPI | From 0.21.0 | 0.23.0 |
Products include Magic-Wormhole Project Magic Wormhole.
How do I fix CVE-2026-32116?
Upgrade magic-wormhole to 0.23.0 or later.
Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.
Is CVE-2026-32116 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-32116 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-4g4c-mfqg-pj8r, PYSEC-2026-2615, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-32116.