CVE-2026-22701 MEDIUM

CVE-2026-22701: filelock Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) Symlink Vulnerability in SoftFileLock

Vendor Tox-Dev
Product filelock
Weakness CWE-59
Published January 10, 2026
Last update January 12, 2026

CVSS base score

5.3/10
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity High
Privileges required Low
User interaction None
Confidentiality None
Integrity Low

CVSS vector

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

What the vulnerability does

01Description

filelock is a platform-independent file lock for Python. Prior to version 3.20.3, a TOCTOU race condition vulnerability exists in the SoftFileLock implementation of the filelock package. An attacker with local filesystem access and permission to create symlinks can exploit a race condition between the permission validation and file creation to cause lock operations to fail or behave unexpectedly. The vulnerability occurs in the _acquire() method between raise_on_not_writable_file() (permission check) and os.open() (file creation). During this race window, an attacker can create a symlink at the lock file path, potentially causing the lock to operate on an unintended target file or leading to denial of service. This issue has been patched in version 3.20.3.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

January 10, 2026 CVE published
January 12, 2026 Record updated