CVE-2026-74859 Gnome-tweaks: path traversal in theme installer
A path traversal vulnerability in GNOME Tweaks allows attackers to write files outside the intended theme directory via crafted ZIP archives.
- 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
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-74859?
CVE-2026-74859 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, published on 8 Sep 2026. 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
The shell theme installer in gnome-tweaks extracts user-supplied ZIP archives without validating archive member paths. As a result, a crafted theme archive can write files outside ~/.themes by using ../ path traversal, absolute paths, or symlink entries.
Weakness: CWE-22
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-74859?
How do I fix CVE-2026-74859?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-74859 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.
Is CVE-2026-74859 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-74859 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2026-74859, GHSA-39p2-wfx9-r3hc, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-74859.