Summary
Kahi has privilege-drop and socket/log permission issues
Kahi releases up to and including v0.1.0-alpha.8 contain three privilege/permission issues, all fixed in v0.1.0-alpha.9. They were identified in a full-codebase security review on 2026-05-26.
Affected versions
All releases <= v0.1.0-alpha.8.
Patched version
v0.1.0-alpha.9.
Details
1. Per-process privilege drop not applied (High)
A process configured with user = "uid:gid" had its credential resolved but never attached to the spawned child, so the process ran with the supervisor's inherited privileges (root, when the supervisor runs as root) instead of the configured lower-privilege user. The intended privilege isolation did not occur, and no error was raised.
2. Privilege drop did not reset supplementary groups (Medium)
When the daemon dropped privileges it set the primary gid and uid but never called setgroups(2), so the launching user's supplementary groups (for example docker, which is root-equivalent) remained active after the drop and were inherited by child processes.
3. FastCGI unix socket world-accessible by default (Medium)
A FastCGI unix-domain socket was chmod-ed only when socket_mode was explicitly configured. With socket_mode unset the socket kept the umask-dependent default (commonly world-accessible), allowing any local user to connect to it.
Workarounds (for <= v0.1.0-alpha.8)
- Do not rely on per-process
user; run the supervisor directly as the intended unprivileged user. - Set an explicit restrictive
socket_modeon FastCGI programs. - Avoid running the supervisor as root where possible.
Impact
A file, directory, or other resource is assigned permissions that allow broader access than intended. Typical impact: unauthorized read, modification, or execution of the resource.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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Upgrade to v0.1.0-alpha.9. Privilege handling is now fail-closed: the configured credential is applied or the process refuses to start, supplementary groups are reset via setgroups before setgid/setuid, and FastCGI unix sockets default to 0700.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is GHSA-55F6-4PR5-C7M5? GHSA-55F6-4PR5-C7M5 is a high-severity incorrect permission assignment for critical resource vulnerability in github.com/kahiteam/kahi (go), affecting versions <= 0.1.0-alpha.8. It is fixed in 0.1.0-alpha.9. A file, directory, or other resource is assigned permissions that allow broader access than intended.
- Which versions of github.com/kahiteam/kahi are affected by GHSA-55F6-4PR5-C7M5? github.com/kahiteam/kahi (go) versions <= 0.1.0-alpha.8 is affected.
- Is there a fix for GHSA-55F6-4PR5-C7M5? Yes. GHSA-55F6-4PR5-C7M5 is fixed in 0.1.0-alpha.9. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is GHSA-55F6-4PR5-C7M5 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether GHSA-55F6-4PR5-C7M5 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether GHSA-55F6-4PR5-C7M5 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix GHSA-55F6-4PR5-C7M5? Upgrade
github.com/kahiteam/kahito 0.1.0-alpha.9 or later.