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Ubuntu 24.04 LTS / 26.04 LTS : kitty vulnerabilities (USN-8763-1)

high Nessus Plugin ID 346239

Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 24.04 LTS / 26.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-8763-1 advisory.

 It was discovered that kitty incorrectly escaped error messages when handling specially crafted terminal escape sequences. A remote attacker could possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary commands.
 (CVE-2026-42850)

 It was discovered that kitty incorrectly handled remote edit requests in terminal output. An attacker could possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary code with the user's privileges. (CVE-2026-42851)

 Thai Son Dinh and Nguyen Huy Vu Dung discovered that kitty incorrectly handled destination paths in its file transmission protocol. A local attacker could possibly use this issue to overwrite arbitrary files with the user's privileges. (CVE-2026-54055)

 It was discovered that kitty incorrectly sanitized responses to color queries. An attacker could possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary commands with the user's privileges. This issue only affected Ubuntu 26.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-54057)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for these issues but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Update the affected kitty, kitty-shell-integration and / or kitty-terminfo packages.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8763-1

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 346239

File Name: ubuntu_USN-8763-1.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Published: 9/16/2026

Updated: 9/16/2026

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.9

Percentile: 96.93

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 10

Temporal Score: 7.8

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-42850

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.8

Temporal Score: 7.9

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

CVSS v4

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.4

Threat Score: 6.5

Threat Vector: CVSS:4.0/E:P

Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:H/AT:P/PR:N/UI:A/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:26.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:kitty-shell-integration, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:kitty-terminfo, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:kitty

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/Debian/dpkg-l, Host/Ubuntu, Host/Ubuntu/release

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 9/15/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 6/4/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-42850, CVE-2026-42851, CVE-2026-54055, CVE-2026-54057

IAVB: 2026-B-0143-S, 2026-B-0230

USN: 8763-1