Is CVE-2026-53870 exploited in the wild?

No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-53870 being exploited in the wild.

How severe is CVE-2026-53870?

Medium severity, with a CVSS score of 5.5, published 17 June 2026.

Which products and versions are affected?

NousResearch Hermes Agent < 0.16.0; hermes-agent (PyPI) ECOSYSTEM:introduced=0,fixed=0.16.0.

Is there a fix for CVE-2026-53870?

Yes. hermes-agent (PyPI): upgrade to 0.16.0 or later. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.

How is CVE-2026-53870 attacked?

It is attacked with local access, in a software library.

Am I affected by CVE-2026-53870?

Check whether you run NousResearch Hermes Agent or hermes-agent (PyPI) at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

CVE-2026-53870: NousResearch Hermes Agent sensitive information disclosure via world-readable files

Q: Is there a fix for CVE-2026-53870?

Yes. hermes-agent (PyPI): upgrade to 0.16.0 or later. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.

Q: How is CVE-2026-53870 attacked?

It is attacked with local access, in a software library.

Q: Am I affected by CVE-2026-53870?

Check whether you run NousResearch Hermes Agent or hermes-agent (PyPI) at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

CVE-2026-53870 · Severity: medium · CVSS 5.5 · Published 2026-06-17

Hermes Agent, an AI agent platform, was found to create sensitive data files with overly permissive access settings. This allowed any user with local access to the system to read private conversation histories, AI prompts, and security keys used for webhooks. An attacker could use this information to spy on private interactions or forge authenticated requests to connected services.

Technologies: NousResearch Hermes Agent, hermes-agent (PyPI). Vendors: NousResearch, PyPI.

Quick answers

Is CVE-2026-53870 exploited in the wild?: No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-53870 being exploited in the wild.
How severe is CVE-2026-53870?: Medium severity, with a CVSS score of 5.5, published 17 June 2026.
Which products and versions are affected?: NousResearch Hermes Agent < 0.16.0; hermes-agent (PyPI) ECOSYSTEM:introduced=0,fixed=0.16.0.
Is there a fix for CVE-2026-53870?: Yes. hermes-agent (PyPI): upgrade to 0.16.0 or later. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
How is CVE-2026-53870 attacked?: It is attacked with local access, in a software library.
Am I affected by CVE-2026-53870?: Check whether you run NousResearch Hermes Agent or hermes-agent (PyPI) at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

How to fix

hermes-agent (PyPI): upgrade to 0.16.0 or later
```
pip install "hermes-agent>=0.16.0"
```

Technical details

Hermes Agent versions prior to 0.16.0 suffer from an incorrect default permissions vulnerability (CWE-276). The application created 'response_store.db' (an SQLite database containing conversation history, tool payloads, and prompts) and 'webhook_subscriptions.json' (containing per-route HMAC secrets) using a mode of 0o644. This occurred because the files inherited the process umask (typically 022) rather than being explicitly restricted. A local attacker with filesystem access can read these files to extract sensitive session data or obtain secrets to forge authenticated webhook requests. The issue was resolved in version 0.16.0 by enforcing 0o600 (owner-only) permissions during file creation and narrowing permissions on existing files during subsequent writes.

Affected products

NousResearch hermes-agent < 0.16.0

Identifiers

CVE-2026-53870
GHSA-99f9-j8r3-p853
PYSEC-2026-2511

Timeline

2026-05-23: disclosed: Initial security PR submitted by contributor
2026-05-24: patched: Fix merged into main branch
2026-06-05: advisory: Version 0.16.0 released with the fix
2026-06-17: advisory: CVE-2026-53870 published

References

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