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CVE-2026-124039gitleaks incorrect permission assignment

Low priorityMedium4.8EPSS not scored yet

CVE-2026-124039 is a incorrect permission assignment in gitleaks, rated medium (4.8 on CVSS 4.0).

Why this priority: Medium severity, with no exploitation signal.

Published · Updated · NVD status: Received

What it is

A critical resource has permissions that let the wrong people read or change it.

How it is reached

An attacker can exploit it by someone who can already run code or sign in on the machine, with an ordinary user account, and nobody has to click anything.

What an attacker gains

The direct impact is limited: partial access to data or a partial outage. In practice, this kind of flaw lets an attacker use a weak default the deployment never changed.

Is it being exploited?

There is no public report of exploitation yet.

What to do

  1. No fixed version is listed yet. Find every place gitleaks runs, watch the references for a fix, and plan a replacement if it is no longer supported.
  2. Limit who can run code or sign in on the hosts that run it.

Description from NVD

Gitleaks through 8.30.1 contains an incorrect permission assignment vulnerability that allows local users to read scan reports because cmd/root.go creates the --report-path file with os.Create and default permissions. Unless --redact is passed, other local users on shared hosts or CI runners can read plaintext secrets and matching lines to obtain discovered credentials.

What this means for your architecture.

A CVE names a product. Whether it matters depends on where that product sits in your systems: what reaches it, which trust boundary it guards and what it can reach once compromised. Veriom maps your components, their relationships and your trust boundaries from your code, cloud and delivery evidence, so you can see where a component like this sits. The radar itself does not look at your systems.

Components it touches

  • Default settings, permissions and deployment configuration. The flaw sits between the shipped defaults and a hardened deployment.

Trust boundaries in play

  • Host boundary. The attacker needs a foothold on the machine first; the flaw turns a small foothold into a bigger one.
  • Between the shipped defaults and a hardened deployment. An attacker who crosses it can use a weak default the deployment never changed.

Questions to answer about your own systems

  • Where does gitleaks run in your systems, and at which version?
  • Which of those hosts also run code or users you do not fully trust?
  • What can it reach once compromised: which data stores, secrets and services?

Sources

  • CVE records and CVSS scores from the NVD CVE API. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.
  • Exploitation status from CISA’s Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog.
  • Exploit likelihood from FIRST’s Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS), refreshed daily.
  • Explanations are written by Veriom from fixed templates over each record’s data, not by a person reviewing each CVE. Descriptions are quoted from the records as published.