CVE-2026-19079

MEDIUMCVSS 4.4/10EPSS 0.08%

Last modified

CVE-2026-19079 is a medium-severity vulnerability rated 4.4/10 on the CVSS scale. 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. EPSS estimates a 0.08% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

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.

Metrics

CVSS 3.1
4.4/10

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

EPSS Probability
0.08%

0.2th percentile

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. Learn more

Weakness Enumeration

Affected Software

Source: CNA advisory (CVE.org). NVD analysis pending.

VendorProductVersions
Red HatRed Hat Hardened ImagesAll versions
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 10All versions
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 6All versions
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 7All versions
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8All versions
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9All versions
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4All versions

References

Timeline

Published
Last Modified
Status
Received

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-19079?
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.
How severe is CVE-2026-19079?
CVE-2026-19079 has a CVSS score of 4.4/10 (MEDIUM severity). The EPSS model estimates a 0.08% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How do I fix CVE-2026-19079?
Check the vendor references and advisories linked above for patched versions and mitigation guidance. You can also run a Strix scan to test if your systems are affected.

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Source: NVD / NIST