Description

Turso CLI is the command line interface (CLI) to the open-source database Turso. Versions prior to 1.0.26 persist the user's Turso platform JWT to `settings.json` using Viper's default `configPermissions` of `0o644`, leaving the credential file world-readable on standard Linux and macOS systems. Any other local UID on the host can read the file and recover the platform JWT, which grants full Turso platform access scoped to the user's organizations. Version 1.0.26 patches the issue.

Executive Summary

Technical Details

Mitigations

References

Additional Metadata

{
  "score": "5.5",
  "pubDate": "2026-08-11T18:17:34.167Z",
  "pubdate": "2026-08-11T18:17:34.167Z",
  "executiveSummary": "An insecure file permissions vulnerability exists in Turso CLI versions prior to 1.0.26.\nThe vulnerability involves the insecure persistence of the user's Turso platform JSON Web Token (JWT) within the settings.json configuration file.\nBecause Viper's default configPermissions of 0o644 are utilized during file creation, the credential file is left world-readable on standard Linux and macOS operating systems.\nAny local user ID (UID) on the host system can access, read, and recover the plaintext platform JWT, resulting in unauthorized access to the victim's Turso platform organizations.\nThe risk implication is full administrative or operational control over the targeted user's cloud database resources by any unprivileged local attacker sharing the same host.\nExploitation requires local interactive or programmatic access to the host filesystem where the Turso CLI has been previously executed and authenticated.\nThe vulnerability is fully remediated in version 1.0.26 by enforcing restrictive file permissions upon creation of the configuration and credential storage files.",
  "technicalDetails": "The root cause of this vulnerability lies in the improper initialization of file creation permissions by the configuration management library utilized within the Turso CLI.\nSpecifically, the application relies on Viper's default configPermissions setting of 0o644 when persisting application state and configuration data to disk.\nOn standard POSIX-compliant multi-user operating systems such as Linux and macOS, a permission mask of 0o644 grants read access to the owner, group, and world, violating the principle of least privilege for sensitive material.\nThe vulnerable component is the configuration persistence mechanism responsible for saving user credentials to the settings.json file path within the user's local directory structure.\nAffected versions include all Turso CLI iterations released prior to version 1.0.26.\nAuthentication requirements for exploitation are non-existent from the perspective of the local host system; any unprivileged local user ID (UID) can interact with the shared filesystem.\nPrivilege requirements are minimal: the attacker requires only standard, unprivileged shell access or local execution capability on the target machine to read files belonging to other users if directory traversals permit, or more commonly, to read files stored within shared or improperly secured local application directories.\nNetwork exposure is entirely local, as the attack vector relies strictly on local host filesystem access rather than network-based interaction.\nThe attack flow proceeds as follows: First, a legitimate user executes the Turso CLI and authenticates against the Turso platform, causing the authentication subsystem to acquire and store a platform JWT inside settings.json with 0o644 permissions. Second, a malicious or compromised local user account on the same host enumerates or targets the known configuration path of the victim. Third, the local attacker reads the contents of settings.json, directly extracting the plaintext platform JWT. Finally, the attacker uses the harvested JWT to impersonate the victim against the Turso platform API.\nThe post-exploitation impact includes full compromise of the victim's Turso platform access, enabling the unauthorized enumeration, modification, creation, or deletion of databases and organizational resources associated with the compromised token scope."
}