CVE-2026-24049 | wheel Allows Arbitrary File Permission Modification via Path Traversal

Exp

wheel is a command line tool for manipulating Python wheel files, as defined in PEP 427. In versions 0.40.0 through 0.46.1, the unpack function is vulnerable to file permission modification through mishandling of file permissions after extraction. The logic blindly trusts the filename from the archive header for the chmod operation, even though the extraction process itself might have sanitized the path. Attackers can craft a malicious wheel file that, when unpacked, changes the permissions of critical system files (e.g., /etc/passwd, SSH keys, config files), allowing for Privilege Escalation or arbitrary code execution by modifying now-writable scripts. This issue has been fixed in version 0.46.2.

Published: 2026-01-22 Last update: 2026-02-18 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-24049 is rated Exploit Available (50/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-24049

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
— nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-24049

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-01-22 — 0.02% —

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-24049

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.1 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.2 [email protected]
5.5 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 3.6 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-24049

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-24049

GHSA-8rrh-rw8j-w5fx · Severity: high · Ecosystem: pip — Wheel Affected by Arbitrary File Permission Modification via Path Traversal in wheel unpack

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-24049

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2026-24049: 1 source package rows (py3-wheel); 10 state rows across 6 repos (3.19-main, 3.20-main, 3.21-main, 3.22-main, 3.23-main, edge-main); fixed 3, open 7. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2026-24049
debian unimportant CVE-2026-24049 unimportant priority: Debian including 1 source packages (wheel), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 4, open 1. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-24049
redhat high — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-24049
suse high CVE-2026-24049 severity important: SUSE including 27 source package names (python-pip, python-setuptools, …), 160 product×package rows across 36 product lines (SUSE Liberty Linux 8, SUSE Liberty Linux 9, … (36 product lines)): Known Not Affected 134, Fixed 25, First Fixed 1. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-24049/
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-24049 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (python-pip, wheel), 18 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, resolute, trusty, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 9, not-affected 6, released 2, needed 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-24049

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-24049

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
wheel_project wheel >= 0.40.0, < 0.46.2 cpe:2.3:a:wheel_project:wheel:*:*:*:*:*:python:*:*

References for CVE-2026-24049

cvelogic Threat Intelligence