abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus · error · Error

Refusing world-writable auto-sync clone root: ${root}

Error message

Refusing world-writable auto-sync clone root: ${root}

What it means

Thrown by assertDirectoryOwnerAndPermissions (POSIX only) when the clone-root directory's permission mode has the other-write bit set (mode & 0o002). A world-writable directory lets any local user add, remove, or replace cloned repositories, which auto-sync would then pull and index — a privilege-escalation vector into the analysis pipeline. The guard rejects the directory rather than downgrading expectations.

Source

Thrown at gitnexus/src/core/auto-sync/path-security.ts:276

export async function assertDirectoryOwnerAndPermissions(root: string): Promise<void> {
  const stat = await fs.stat(root);
  if (!stat.isDirectory()) throw new Error(`auto-sync clone root is not a directory: ${root}`);
  // POSIX uid/mode have no meaning on Windows, and this runs on every tick for
  // every project, so throwing here failed 100% of repos forever while `watch
  // status` still read `running`. Skip the ownership assertions rather than the
  // whole feature: the caller's other guards — dangerous-root rejection
  // (including the Windows system roots), symlink refusal, realpath containment
  // and the GitNexus-internal-root check — all still apply, and managed git runs
  // with `core.hooksPath` pinned to the null device.
  if (process.platform === 'win32') return;
  if (typeof process.getuid === 'function' && stat.uid !== process.getuid()) {
    throw new Error(`auto-sync clone root is owned by uid ${stat.uid}, not current process uid`);
  }
  const mode = stat.mode & 0o777;
  const groupWritable = (mode & 0o020) !== 0;
  const worldWritable = (mode & 0o002) !== 0;
  if (worldWritable) {
    throw new Error(`Refusing world-writable auto-sync clone root: ${root}`);
  }
  if (groupWritable) {
    throw new Error(`Refusing group-writable auto-sync clone root: ${root}`);
  }
}

function assertContainedOrSame(root: string, child: string, message: string): void {
  const rel = path.relative(root, child);
  if (rel.startsWith('..') || path.isAbsolute(rel)) throw new Error(message);
}

View on GitHub (pinned to 0d1aed942f)

Solutions

1. chmod o-w <root> to clear the world-write bit (e.g. chmod 755)
2. Run chmod -R o-w over the clone root if subdirectories inherited the permissive mode
3. Avoid /tmp-style shared locations; use a dedicated directory with restrictive permissions

When it happens

Trigger: Thrown at gitnexus/src/core/auto-sync/path-security.ts:276 when the library encounters an invalid state.

Common situations: See trigger scenarios.

AI-assisted analysis of abhigyanpatwari/GitNexus@0d1aed942f (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/efba852c5fed4ebe. Report an issue: GitHub.