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CVE-2026-19079

Policycoreutils: policycoreutils: toctou race condition in fixfiles allows arbitrary selinux label manipulation

4.4 MediumFix available

A TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) race condition vulnerability was found in the fixfiles script in policycoreutils. When running fixfiles relabel or fixfiles restore, the script used find and chcon commands to locate and relabel unlabeled files under /tmp and other directories. A local attacker could exploit a race window between the file discovery and the label change operation by swapping directory components with symlinks, causing chcon to follow the symlink and modify SELinux labels on arbitrary system files. This could undermine SELinux mandatory access control protections on critical files such as /etc/shadow.

Attack profile

How easy it is to exploit

Attack vector
Local
Complexity
High
Privileges needed
Low
User interaction
Required

What an attacker can affect

Confidentiality
None
Integrity
High
Availability
None

Exploit likelihood

0.11%Unchanged since Aug 7, 2026
90%50%10%1%

What each source reports

CVE List Score used 4.4

Policycoreutils: policycoreutils: toctou race condition in fixfiles allows arbitrary selinux label manipulation

A TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) race condition vulnerability was found in the fixfiles script in policycoreutils. When running fixfiles relabel or fixfiles restore, the script used find and chcon commands to locate and relabel unlabeled files under /tmp and other directories. A local attacker could exploit a race window between the file discovery and the label change operation by swapping directory components with symlinks, causing chcon to follow the symlink and modify SELinux labels on arbitrary system files. This could undermine SELinux mandatory access control protections on critical files such as /etc/shadow.

Record
CVE-2026-19079
CVSS 3.1
4.4 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Weakness
CWE-367
Updated
2026-11-05
EUVDEUVD-2026-54398 4.4

A TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) race condition vulnerability was found in the fixfiles script in policycoreutils. When running fixfiles relabel or fixfiles restore, the script used find and chcon commands to locate and relabel unlabeled files under /tmp and other directories. A local attacker could exploit a race window between the file discovery and the label change operation by swapping directory components with symlinks, causing chcon to follow the symlink and modify SELinux labels on arbitrary system files. This could undermine SELinux mandatory access control protections on critical files such as /etc/shadow.

Record
EUVD-2026-54398
CVSS 3.1
4.4 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Updated
2026-11-05
GitHub AdvisoriesGHSA-8hc6-8f5m-vmq3 4.4

A TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) race condition vulnerability was found in the fixfiles...

A TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) race condition vulnerability was found in the fixfiles script in policycoreutils. When running fixfiles relabel or fixfiles restore, the script used find and chcon commands to locate and relabel unlabeled files under /tmp and other directories. A local attacker could exploit a race window between the file discovery and the label change operation by swapping directory components with symlinks, causing chcon to follow the symlink and modify SELinux labels on arbitrary system files. This could undermine SELinux mandatory access control protections on critical files such as /etc/shadow.

Record
GHSA-8hc6-8f5m-vmq3
CVSS 3.1
4.4 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Weakness
CWE-367
Updated
2026-11-02
NVD 4.4

A TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) race condition vulnerability was found in the fixfiles script in policycoreutils. When running fixfiles relabel or fixfiles restore, the script used find and chcon commands to locate and relabel unlabeled files under /tmp and other directories. A local attacker could exploit a race window between the file discovery and the label change operation by swapping directory components with symlinks, causing chcon to follow the symlink and modify SELinux labels on arbitrary system files. This could undermine SELinux mandatory access control protections on critical files such as /etc/shadow.

Record
CVE-2026-19079
CVSS 3.1
4.4 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Weakness
CWE-367
Updated
2026-11-05
OSV 4.4

Policycoreutils: policycoreutils: toctou race condition in fixfiles allows arbitrary selinux label manipulation

A TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) race condition vulnerability was found in the fixfiles script in policycoreutils. When running fixfiles relabel or fixfiles restore, the script used find and chcon commands to locate and relabel unlabeled files under /tmp and other directories. A local attacker could exploit a race window between the file discovery and the label change operation by swapping directory components with symlinks, causing chcon to follow the symlink and modify SELinux labels on arbitrary system files. This could undermine SELinux mandatory access control protections on critical files such as /etc/shadow.

Record
CVE-2026-19079
CVSS 3.1
4.4 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Weakness
CWE-367
Updated
2026-11-07
OSVDEBIAN-CVE-2026-19079 4.4

A TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) race condition vulnerability was found in the fixfiles script in policycoreutils. When running fixfiles relabel or fixfiles restore, the script used find and chcon commands to locate and relabel unlabeled files under /tmp and other directories. A local attacker could exploit a race window between the file discovery and the label change operation by swapping directory components with symlinks, causing chcon to follow the symlink and modify SELinux labels on arbitrary system files. This could undermine SELinux mandatory access control protections on critical files such as /etc/shadow.

Record
DEBIAN-CVE-2026-19079
CVSS 3.1
4.4 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVRHSA-2026:51861 4.4

Red Hat Security Advisory: Red Hat Hardened Images RPMs Security Update

Record
RHSA-2026:51861
CVSS 3.1
4.4 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Updated
2026-11-02
OSVUBUNTU-CVE-2026-19079 4.4

A TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) race condition vulnerability was found in the fixfiles script in policycoreutils. When running fixfiles relabel or fixfiles restore, the script used find and chcon commands to locate and relabel unlabeled files under /tmp and other directories. A local attacker could exploit a race window between the file discovery and the label change operation by swapping directory components with symlinks, causing chcon to follow the symlink and modify SELinux labels on arbitrary system files. This could undermine SELinux mandatory access control protections on critical files such as /etc/shadow.

Record
UBUNTU-CVE-2026-19079
CVSS 3.1
4.4 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
Updated
2026-11-02

Affected products

Affected packages

Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
policycoreutils
Debian:12
All versions, plus listed versions
3.10-13.11-13.4-13.5-13.5-2
Show 8 moreShow less
3.5-2.13.7-13.7-23.8-13.8.1-13.8.1-23.9-13.9-2
None known
policycoreutils
Debian:13
All versions, plus listed versions
3.10-13.11-13.8.1-23.9-13.9-2
None known
policycoreutils
Debian:14
All versions, plus listed versions
3.10-13.11-13.8.1-23.9-13.9-2
None known
policycoreutils
Red Hat:hummingbird:1
before 0:3.11-2.2.hum1
0:3.11-2.2.hum1
policycoreutils-dbus
Red Hat:hummingbird:1
before 0:3.11-2.2.hum1
0:3.11-2.2.hum1
policycoreutils-devel
Red Hat:hummingbird:1
before 0:3.11-2.2.hum1
0:3.11-2.2.hum1
policycoreutils-gui
Red Hat:hummingbird:1
before 0:3.11-2.2.hum1
0:3.11-2.2.hum1
policycoreutils-newrole
Red Hat:hummingbird:1
before 0:3.11-2.2.hum1
0:3.11-2.2.hum1
policycoreutils-python-utils
Red Hat:hummingbird:1
before 0:3.11-2.2.hum1
0:3.11-2.2.hum1
policycoreutils-restorecond
Red Hat:hummingbird:1
before 0:3.11-2.2.hum1
0:3.11-2.2.hum1
Show 10 moreShow less
Affected packages
PackageAffectedFixed
policycoreutils-sandbox
Red Hat:hummingbird:1
before 0:3.11-2.2.hum1
0:3.11-2.2.hum1
python3-policycoreutils
Red Hat:hummingbird:1
before 0:3.11-2.2.hum1
0:3.11-2.2.hum1
policycoreutils
Ubuntu:14.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
2.1.13-22.2.1-12.2.4-12.2.5-1
None known
policycoreutils
Ubuntu:16.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
2.3-1
None known
policycoreutils
Ubuntu:18.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
2.7-1
None known
policycoreutils
Ubuntu:20.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
2.9-23.0-1
None known
policycoreutils
Ubuntu:22.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
3.1-33.3-13.3-1build1
None known
policycoreutils
Ubuntu:24.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
3.5-2
None known
policycoreutils
Ubuntu:26.10
All versions, plus listed versions
3.9-23.11-1
None known
policycoreutils
Ubuntu:26.04:LTS
All versions, plus listed versions
3.8.1-13.9-2
None known

History

History
RecordedChangedSources
productsCVE List
factsEUVD
first indexedCVE List, EUVD, GitHub Advisories, NVD, OSV

Dates are when Every CVE recorded each change. Upstream dates may differ.

In short

CVE-2026-19079 is a medium vulnerability (CVSS 4.4) in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published August 7, 2026. No source lists public exploit code. EPSS puts the chance of exploitation in the next 30 days at 0.11%, the 1st percentile. Fixed in policycoreutils 0:3.11-2.2.hum1.

References

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