CVE-2026-44028

high

Description

An issue was discovered in Nix before 2.34.7 and Lix before 2.95.2. Unbounded recursion in the NAR (Nix Archive) parser could lead to a stack-to-heap overflow when the parser is run on a coroutine stack. The stack is allocated without a guard page, which means that a stack overflow could overwrite memory on the heap and could allow arbitrary code execution as the Nix daemon (run as root in multi-user installations) if ASLR hardening is bypassed. This can be exploited by all users able to connect to the daemon (e.g., in Nix, this is configurable via the allowed-users setting, defaulting to all users). The fixed versions are 2.34.7, 2.33.6, 2.32.8, 2.31.5, 2.30.5, 2.29.4, and 2.28.7 for Nix (introduced in 2.24.4); and 2.95.2, 2.94.2, and 2.93.4 for Lix (introduced in 2.93.0).

References

https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/05/04/33

https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/05/04/32

https://github.com/NixOS/nix/security/advisories/GHSA-vh5x-56v6-4368

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/security-advisory-local-privilege-escalation-in-lix-and-nix/77407

Details

Source: Mitre, NVD

Published: 2026-05-05

Updated: 2026-05-05

Risk Information

CVSS v2

Base Score: 5.5

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:H/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:N

Severity: Medium

CVSS v3

Base Score: 7.5

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N

Severity: High