CVE-2026-64846: nixos nix UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-64846 is a low (CVSS 2.8) UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following vulnerability in nixos nix. EPSS estimates a 0.11% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 1.1% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 20-08-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 20-08-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

Nix is a package manager for Linux and other Unix systems. Prior to 2.35.0, a malicious derivation executed with the recursive-nix experimental feature can exploit a time-of-check/time-of-use race involving final symlink handling in the LocalStore restore path. The race can cause writeFile to follow a substituted final symlink when opening a path with O_TRUNC instead of enforcing FinalSymlink::DontFollow, allowing the Nix process or nix-daemon to create or truncate an empty file outside the build sandbox with the daemon user's permissions. The primitive does not provide arbitrary-content writes and requires winning the race. This issue is fixed in version 2.35.0.

• CWE-61UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) FollowingThe product, when opening a file or directory, does not sufficiently account for when the file is a symbolic link that resolves to a target outside of the intended control sphere. This could allow an attacker to cause the product to operate on unauthorized files.
• CWE-367Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race ConditionThe product checks the state of a resource before using that resource, but the resource's state can change between the check and the use in a way that invalidates the results of the check.