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).

A race condition in the Nix, Lix, and Guix package managers enables changing the ownership of arbitrary files to the UID and GID of the build user (e.g., nixbld or guixbuild). This affects Nix before 2.24.15, 2.26.4, 2.28.4, and 2.29.1; Lix before 2.91.2, 2.92.2, and 2.93.1; and Guix before 1.4.0-38.0e79d5b.

A race condition in the Nix, Lix, and Guix package managers allows the removal of content from arbitrary folders. This affects Nix before 2.24.15, 2.26.4, 2.28.4, and 2.29.1; Lix before 2.91.2, 2.92.2, and 2.93.1; and Guix before 1.4.0-38.0e79d5b.

The Nix, Lix, and Guix package managers fail to properly set permissions when a derivation build fails. This may allow arbitrary processes to modify the content of a store outside of the build sandbox. This affects Nix before 2.24.15, 2.26.4, 2.28.4, and 2.29.1; Lix before 2.91.2, 2.92.2, and 2.93.1; and Guix before 1.4.0-38.0e79d5b.

The Nix, Lix, and Guix package managers default to using temporary build directories in a world-readable and world-writable location. This allows standard users to deceive the package manager into using directories with pre-existing content, potentially leading to unauthorized actions or data manipulation. This affects Nix before 2.24.15, 2.26.4, 2.28.4, and 2.29.1; Lix before 2.91.2, 2.92.2, and 2.93.1; and Guix before 1.4.0-38.0e79d5b.

Summary

Nix and Lix daemon implementations are affected by buffer overflows vulnerabilities that allow a local attacker to gain arbitrary code execution as the daemon user (root in multi-user installations).

The vulnerabilities are identified as: - Nix: GHSA-vh5x-56v6-4368, CVE ID pending attribution. - Lix: CVE ID pending attribution.

This is a coordinated disclosure between the Nix and Lix projects.

Guix is NOT affected by this vulnerability.

Am I affected?

To exploit this issue, a local attacker needs access to talk to the Nix daemon. All systems that allow connections to their daemons are affected. Only users that are allowed to connect to the daemon (via allowed-users and trusted-users) can reliably trigger the issue. Substituters can in theory trigger the issue but cannot make enough attempts to mount attacks in practice.

Additionally, this vulnerability requires ASLR weakening techniques to lead to a compromise.

Fixes

The vulnerabilities are fixed in the following versions:

- Nix: - Affected versions: ≥ 2.24.4 - Fixed versions: 2.34.7, 2.33.6, 2.32.8, 2.31.5, 2.30.5, 2.29.4, 2.28.7

Nix security release also includes patches that address an unrelated path traversal vulnerability GHSA-gr92-w2r5-qw5p (CVE ID pending attribution).

- Lix: - Affected versions: ≥ 2.93.0 - Fixed versions: 2.93.4, 2.94.2, 2.95.2

Acknowledgement

- We would like to thank @edef with the help of Sander (@sandydoo) for reporting the issues and working with the development teams to suggest and confirm the fixes. - Thanks to eldritch horrors (@pennae) and Raito Bezarius (@RaitoBezarius) on the Lix side for the mitigation. - Thanks to @xokdvium on the Nix side for the mitigation. - Thanks to @hexa and @tgerbet on the NixOS security team for coordinating this.

References

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/security-advisory-local-privilege-escalation-in-lix-and-nix/77407 Nix issues: - https://github.com/NixOS/nix/security/advisories/GHSA-vh5x-56v6-4368 - https://github.com/NixOS/nix/security/advisories/GHSA-gr92-w2r5-qw5p Lix in-depth review blog post: not yet published

Hello everyone,

The Lix issue has been assigned CVE-2026-44028 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N). The Lix team has published a detailed blog post about it here for those of you wanting extra details: https://lix.systems/blog/2026-05-05-lix-unsigned-integer-overflow/

We are currently having some troubles getting this CVE split from the Nix issue GHSA-vh5x-56v6-4368 and updated accordingly. While both vulnerabilities could lead to similar compromises and were discovered around the same time, they do not share the same root cause.

The other Nix vulnerability, GHSA-gr92-w2r5-qw5p, has been assigned CVE-2026-44029.

Le lun. 4 mai 2026 à 23:06, Thomas GERBET <thomas () gerbet me> a écrit : Summary

Nix and Lix daemon implementations are affected by buffer overflows vulnerabilities that allow a local attacker to gain arbitrary code execution as the daemon user (root in multi-user installations).

The vulnerabilities are identified as: - Nix: GHSA-vh5x-56v6-4368, CVE ID pending attribution. - Lix: CVE ID pending attribution.

This is a coordinated disclosure between the Nix and Lix projects.

Guix is NOT affected by this vulnerability.

Am I affected?

To exploit this issue, a local attacker needs access to talk to the Nix daemon. All systems that allow connections to their daemons are affected. Only users that are allowed to connect to the daemon (via allowed-users and trusted-users) can reliably trigger the issue. Substituters can in theory trigger the issue but cannot make enough attempts to mount attacks in practice.

Additionally, this vulnerability requires ASLR weakening techniques to lead to a compromise.

Fixes

The vulnerabilities are fixed in the following versions:

- Nix: - Affected versions: ≥ 2.24.4 - Fixed versions: 2.34.7, 2.33.6, 2.32.8, 2.31.5, 2.30.5, 2.29.4, 2.28.7

Nix security release also includes patches that address an unrelated path traversal vulnerability GHSA-gr92-w2r5-qw5p (CVE ID pending attribution).

- Lix: - Affected versions: ≥ 2.93.0 - Fixed versions: 2.93.4, 2.94.2, 2.95.2

Acknowledgement

- We would like to thank @edef with the help of Sander (@sandydoo) for reporting the issues and working with the development teams to suggest and confirm the fixes. - Thanks to eldritch horrors (@pennae) and Raito Bezarius (@RaitoBezarius) on the Lix side for the mitigation. - Thanks to @xokdvium on the Nix side for the mitigation. - Thanks to @hexa and @tgerbet on the NixOS security team for coordinating this.

References

https://discourse.nixos.org/t/security-advisory-local-privilege-escalation-in-lix-and-nix/77407 Nix issues: - https://github.com/NixOS/nix/security/advisories/GHSA-vh5x-56v6-4368 - https://github.com/NixOS/nix/security/advisories/GHSA-gr92-w2r5-qw5p Lix in-depth review blog post: not yet published