What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-112940: filelock ReadWriteLock: SQLite reopens the lock database by name, so a planted symlink or journal file makes the lock user's process overwrite or unlink its own files

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.1 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2026-10-20 · updated 2026-10-22
• Weakness: CWE-363

Description

filelock is a platform-independent file lock for Python. From 3.20.4 until 4.2.1, ReadWriteLock let SQLite reopen the database and side files by name; on POSIX systems an attacker with rename access in a non-sticky parent can swap those names to cause overwrite or unlink operations, while a writable adjacent hot journal is additionally required for attacker-chosen content overwrites. This issue is fixed in version 4.2.1.

Affected products

• tox-dev filelock: from 3.20.4 before 4.2.1 — fixed in 4.2.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: tox-dev filelock 4.2.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/tox-dev/filelock/commit/5e3f2ec0c5fb17cb2635b60b2b68bc63ab81ca2d
• https://github.com/tox-dev/filelock/pull/834
• https://github.com/tox-dev/filelock/releases/tag/4.2.1
• https://github.com/tox-dev/filelock/security/advisories/GHSA-v4x8-3wr5-3wq8
• https://github.com/tox-dev/filelock/security/advisories/GHSA-v4x8-3wr5-3wq8

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