CVE-2026-19079
Full vulnerability record from the local CVENow database.
Description
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.
Severity
MEDIUM
CVSS score
4.4
(v3.1)
Vulnerability status
Awaiting Analysis
Source identifier
Published
2026-08-07 08:16:46.160000
Last modified
2026-11-05 20:17:54.090000
View original CVE JSON
{
"id": "CVE-2026-19079",
"sourceIdentifier": "[email protected]",
"published": "2026-08-07T08:16:46.160",
"lastModified": "2026-11-05T20:17:54.090",
"vulnStatus": "Awaiting Analysis",
"cveTags": [],
"descriptions": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "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."
}
],
"affected": [
{
"source": "[email protected]",
"affectedData": [
{
"vendor": "Red Hat",
"product": "Red Hat Hardened Images",
"defaultStatus": "affected",
"collectionURL": "https://catalog.redhat.com/software/containers/",
"packageName": "policycoreutils-main",
"cpes": [
"cpe:/a:redhat:hummingbird:1"
],
"versions": [
{
"version": "3.11-2.2.hum1",
"lessThan": "*",
"versionType": "rpm",
"status": "unaffected"
}
]
},
{
"vendor": "Red Hat",
"product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10",
"defaultStatus": "affected",
"collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/",
"packageName": "policycoreutils",
"cpes": [
"cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:10"
]
},
{
"vendor": "Red Hat",
"product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6",
"defaultStatus": "unknown",
"collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/",
"packageName": "policycoreutils",
"cpes": [
"cpe:/o:redhat:rhel_els:6"
]
},
{
"vendor": "Red Hat",
"product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7",
"defaultStatus": "affected",
"collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/",
"packageName": "policycoreutils",
"cpes": [
"cpe:/o:redhat:rhel_els:7"
]
},
{
"vendor": "Red Hat",
"product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8",
"defaultStatus": "affected",
"collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/",
"packageName": "policycoreutils",
"cpes": [
"cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:8"
]
},
{
"vendor": "Red Hat",
"product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9",
"defaultStatus": "affected",
"collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/",
"packageName": "policycoreutils",
"cpes": [
"cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:9"
]
},
{
"vendor": "Red Hat",
"product": "Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4",
"defaultStatus": "affected",
"collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/",
"packageName": "openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8",
"cpes": [
"cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:4"
]
},
{
"vendor": "Red Hat",
"product": "Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4",
"defaultStatus": "affected",
"collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/",
"packageName": "openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9",
"cpes": [
"cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:4"
]
},
{
"vendor": "Red Hat",
"product": "Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5",
"defaultStatus": "affected",
"collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/",
"packageName": "openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9",
"cpes": [
"cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:5"
]
}
]
}
],
"metrics": {
"cvssMetricV31": [
{
"source": "[email protected]",
"type": "Secondary",
"cvssData": {
"version": "3.1",
"vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N",
"baseScore": 4.4,
"baseSeverity": "MEDIUM",
"attackVector": "LOCAL",
"attackComplexity": "HIGH",
"privilegesRequired": "LOW",
"userInteraction": "REQUIRED",
"scope": "UNCHANGED",
"confidentialityImpact": "NONE",
"integrityImpact": "HIGH",
"availabilityImpact": "NONE"
},
"exploitabilityScore": 0.8,
"impactScore": 3.6
}
],
"ssvcV203": [
{
"source": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0",
"ssvcData": {
"timestamp": "2026-08-07T17:40:57.382610Z",
"id": "CVE-2026-19079",
"options": [
{
"exploitation": "none"
},
{
"automatable": "no"
},
{
"technicalImpact": "partial"
}
],
"role": "CISA Coordinator",
"version": "2.0.3"
}
}
]
},
"weaknesses": [
{
"source": "[email protected]",
"type": "Secondary",
"description": [
{
"lang": "en",
"value": "CWE-367"
}
]
}
],
"references": [
{
"url": "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:51861",
"source": "[email protected]"
},
{
"url": "https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-19079",
"source": "[email protected]"
},
{
"url": "https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2511976",
"source": "[email protected]"
},
{
"url": "https://github.com/SELinuxProject/selinux/commit/a556538c2d5d2583273e025b45c02651fef47679",
"source": "[email protected]"
}
]
}