Claude Code is an agentic coding tool. Prior to 2.1.251, the Edit tool validates a target using pathname and symlink resolution that is not bound to the underlying directory inode or file descriptor. On macOS, attacker-controlled code running in the Bash sandbox can atomically replace an in-workspace parent directory with a symlink after validation, causing the unsandboxed Edit implementation to overwrite a user-writable file outside the workspace. Exploitation requires attacker-controlled code to run inside the sandbox, such as from a malicious repository or dependency script. This issue is fixed in version 2.1.251.
CVE-2026-88968
HIGHPre-NVD 7.77.7
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence
“—” beside the score: it is equal to the CVSS score beside it.
This high-severity CVE scores 7.7 under a secondary CVSS source (NVD's own analysis pending). EPSS exploit probability: 0.3% (25th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs). No GitHub Security Advisory CVSS is on record for this CVE.
Triggered by: Headline CVSS from a secondary CVSS source
Sources: EPSS, a secondary CVSS source
Also known asEUVD-2026-116209 (ENISA EUVD) · GHSA-5xjx-9qx6-jcrv (GitHub Security Advisories)Source: ENISA EUVD
7.7EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixRemediate within your standard update timelines (the SSVC decision on this page).
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.3%CVSS: 7.7Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS
- 7.7
- EG Score
- 7.7HIGHmedium confidence
- EG Risk
- 35EG Risk 35/100
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses impact severity (EG Severity, the CVSS base score, never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score) with real-world exploitation and automatability, under weights EchelonGraph set by hand, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner.
How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)Severity77% × 45%Impact severity (EG Severity): CVSS 7.7 of 10. Never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score.Exploitation0.3% × 40%FIRST EPSS: the 30-day exploitation probability when EchelonGraph scored this CVE.Automatability0% × 15%CISA's SSVC Automatable value: no (Vulnrichment).SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines. - EPSS PROB
- 0.3%
- EPSS %ILE
- 25th
- KEV
- Not listed
What the EG score is made of (scorer v4.0: the three questions the 0–10 score mixes, published apart · methodology)
The EG score (7.7): severity, escalated by confirmed exploitation. This CVE's 7.7 is its impact severity (EG Severity), not escalated.
- EG Severity
- 7.7 HIGHCVSS-B, impact only: no KEV listing, EPSS or EG-KEV tier raises it.a secondary CVSS source
- EG Likelihood
- 0.3% within 30 daysSource: FIRST EPSS (model v2026.06.15, score date 2026-11-10). FIRST's exploitation probability, not an EchelonGraph model.
- Confirmed exploitation
- None on record (CISA KEV, EG-KEV Tier 1)Reported apart from the likelihood: an observed fact, not a probability.
- EG Priority
- SSVC Track at medium mission impactTrack at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).CISA BOD 26-04: 14 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.Each input and its source, and whom BOD 26-04 binds: the SSVC and BOD 26-04 blocks below.
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).
A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.
Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table
BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)14 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.
The score's inputs: In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it
Published
November 3, 2026
Last Modified
November 3, 2026
Advisory Details (2)
Auto-updated Nov 3, 2026Patch available. Sources: github, github_release.
GitHub advisoryMentions a patch (unverified)
TOCTOU Race in Edit Tool Allows File Writes Outside the Workspace · Advisory · anthropics/claude-code · GitHub
https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/security/advisories/GHSA-5xjx-9qx6-jcrvGitHub release Patch Available
v2.1.251
Patch available: anthropics/claude-code v2.1.251
https://github.com/anthropics/claude-code/releases/tag/v2.1.251Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-88968(1)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
Patch Availability(1)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fix (by version range) / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| npm | @anthropic-ai/claude-code @ 2.1.251 (fixes < 2.1.251) | — | ghsa |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Affected Packages
(1 across 1 ecosystem)
npm(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fix by version range | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| @anthropic-ai/claude-code | — |
| — |
Weakness Classification(2)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 9× in last 7d / 13× in last 30d)
Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed its CVE.org record (CNA or CISA ADP). An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). "EchelonGraph re-scored" is our own recompute of this CVE's score, not an update from a source, and is not counted in the refreshes above. Most recent first.
- 2026-11-12 16:35 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 25th percentile
- 2026-11-11 16:41 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
- 2026-11-11 04:00 UTCEchelonGraph re-scored
- 2026-11-11 04:00 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-5xjx-9qx6-jcrv · GitHub severity HIGH
- 2026-11-10 16:45 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
- 2026-11-09 22:45 UTCEchelonGraph re-scored
- 2026-11-09 22:45 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-5xjx-9qx6-jcrv · GitHub severity HIGH
- 2026-11-09 16:36 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
- 2026-11-08 16:41 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
- 2026-11-07 16:40 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
- 2026-11-06 16:39 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
- 2026-11-05 16:39 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
- 2026-11-04 16:37 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 24th percentile
- 2026-11-03 22:28 UTCEchelonGraph re-scored
- 2026-11-03 21:37 UTCEchelonGraph re-scored
- 2026-11-03 21:03 UTCENISA EUVD ID recordedEUVD-2026-116209 · Source: ENISA EUVD
- 2026-11-03 20:27 UTCEchelonGraph re-scored
- 2026-11-03 20:12 UTCEchelonGraph re-scoredFirst assessed: 7.7 HIGH
- 2026-11-03 20:11 UTCMITRE cvelistV5first tracked
Related CVEs(same product + same CWE)
Same product
10 shownnpm:@anthropic-ai/claude-code
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2026-88968?
CVE-2026-88968 is a high-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on November 3, 2026. Claude Code is an agentic coding tool. Prior to 2.1.251, the Edit tool validates a target using pathname and symlink resolution that is not bound to the underlying directory inode or file descriptor. On macOS, attacker-controlled code running in the Bash sandbox can atomically replace an…
When was the CVE record for CVE-2026-88968 published?
The CVE record for CVE-2026-88968 was published on November 3, 2026. That is the record's publication date; the vulnerability itself may have been made public earlier. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of November 3, 2026; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2026-88968 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-88968 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (25th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-88968?
CVE-2026-88968 has a CVSS base score of 7.7 (a secondary CVSS source that NVD displays; NVD's own analysis pending).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-88968?
A fix for CVE-2026-88968 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory. The vendor advisories EchelonGraph has for CVE-2026-88968 are linked in the Vendor Advisories panel on this page.
Dependency Blast Radius
See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2026-88968
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2026-88968?
EchelonGraph automatically scans your cloud infrastructure and maps CVE exposure using blast radius analysis.