The cleanup of tempfile.TemporaryDirectory is vulnerable to a race condition. An attacker who can modify the tree during cleanup can replace a directory with a symbolic link, causing files outside of the temporary directory to be deleted or have their permissions and file flags reset, with the privileges of the process performing the cleanup. Note that platforms where shutil.rmtree.avoids_symlink_attacks is false, remain affected, and file flags may still be reset outside of the tree on all platforms.
Attack Parameters
Attack Vector
Local
Requires local access
Attack Complexity
Low
Easy to exploit
Attack Requirements
Present
Additional conditions required
Privileges Required
None
No privileges needed
User Interaction
None
No user interaction needed
Impact Assessment
Confidentiality
None
No data leak
Integrity
High
Complete data modification
Availability
High
Complete denial of service
CVSS Vector v4.0
Weakness Type (CWE)
Vulnerable Products
python software foundation:cpython
References 8
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/5c20517a4fc56683efe63a7751020db9573f53…
cna@python.org
https://github.com/python/cpython/issues/157579
cna@python.org
https://github.com/python/cpython/pull/157580
cna@python.org
http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/09/29/40
af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/458e7134a5af7f86aee9d21b51cf499b41aa44…
cna@python.org
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/e1f3590f155c6d66007e958c98c9d693165519…
cna@python.org
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/06ef3d43fdaf4da97af12fa694b4886092c4b9…
cna@python.org
https://github.com/python/cpython/commit/58ed0259cae509a19138795df302fe60b544dc…
NVD