GNU nano creates the user’s ~/.local directory with overly permissive permissions when the directory does not exist yet. On first use of features requiring Cross-Desktop Group (XDG) data storage, nano explicitly requests directory mode 0777, making the directory world‑writable in environments where the process umask does not sufficiently restrict permissions.
In systems with a relaxed or zero umask, such as container environments, CI/CD runners, embedded systems, or user shells configured with umask 000, this results in ~/.local being created as world‑writable. A local attacker can exploit a race window between nano’s creation of ~/.local and its subsequent creation of more restrictive subdirectories to write attacker‑controlled files into the victim’s XDG directory hierarchy.

This problem was fixed in nano version 9.0

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History

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 16:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Gnu
Gnu nano
Vendors & Products Gnu
Gnu nano

Tue, 28 Apr 2026 14:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description GNU nano creates the user’s ~/.local directory with overly permissive permissions when the directory does not exist yet. On first use of features requiring Cross-Desktop Group (XDG) data storage, nano explicitly requests directory mode 0777, making the directory world‑writable in environments where the process umask does not sufficiently restrict permissions. In systems with a relaxed or zero umask, such as container environments, CI/CD runners, embedded systems, or user shells configured with umask 000, this results in ~/.local being created as world‑writable. A local attacker can exploit a race window between nano’s creation of ~/.local and its subsequent creation of more restrictive subdirectories to write attacker‑controlled files into the victim’s XDG directory hierarchy. This problem was fixed in nano version 9.0
Title Insecure Directory Permissions in GNU nano Leading to Privilege Abuse
Weaknesses CWE-732
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 2.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}


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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: CERT-PL

Published:

Updated: 2026-04-28T14:28:55.143Z

Reserved: 2026-04-14T09:44:32.553Z

Link: CVE-2026-40556

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-04-28T15:16:30.150

Modified: 2026-04-28T15:16:30.150

Link: CVE-2026-40556

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-04-28T16:00:12Z

Weaknesses