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.

CVSS v3 4.4 MEDIUM

4.4^/10

CVSS v3 : MEDIUM

Vector :

Exploitability : 0.8 / Impact : 3.6

Attack Vector LOCAL

Attack Complexity HIGH

Privileges Required LOW

User Interaction REQUIRED

Confidentiality Impact NONE

Integrity Impact HIGH

Availability Impact NONE

Scope UNCHANGED

References

Link	Resource
https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:51861
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-19079
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2511976
https://github.com/SELinuxProject/selinux/commit/a556538c2d5d2583273e025b45c02651fef47679

Configurations

No configuration.

History

No history.

Information

Published : 2026-08-07 08:16

Updated : 2026-09-01 13:18

NVD link : CVE-2026-19079

Mitre link : CVE-2026-19079

CVE.ORG link : CVE-2026-19079

JSON object : View

Products Affected

No product.

CWE

CWE-367

Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition

{"id": "CVE-2026-19079", "cveTags": [], "metrics": {"ssvcV203": [{"source": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0", "ssvcData": {"id": "CVE-2026-19079", "role": "CISA Coordinator", "options": [{"exploitation": "none"}, {"automatable": "no"}, {"technicalImpact": "partial"}], "version": "2.0.3", "timestamp": "2026-08-07T17:40:57.382610Z"}}], "cvssMetricV31": [{"type": "Secondary", "source": "secalert@redhat.com", "cvssData": {"scope": "UNCHANGED", "version": "3.1", "baseScore": 4.4, "attackVector": "LOCAL", "baseSeverity": "MEDIUM", "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N", "integrityImpact": "HIGH", "userInteraction": "REQUIRED", "attackComplexity": "HIGH", "availabilityImpact": "NONE", "privilegesRequired": "LOW", "confidentialityImpact": "NONE"}, "impactScore": 3.6, "exploitabilityScore": 0.8}]}, "affected": [{"source": "secalert@redhat.com", "affectedData": [{"cpes": ["cpe:/a:redhat:hummingbird:1"], "vendor": "Red Hat", "product": "Red Hat Hardened Images", "versions": [{"status": "unaffected", "version": "3.11-2.2.hum1", "lessThan": "*", "versionType": "rpm"}], "packageName": "policycoreutils-main", "collectionURL": "https://catalog.redhat.com/software/containers/", "defaultStatus": "affected"}, {"cpes": ["cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10"], "vendor": "Red Hat", "product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10", "packageName": "policycoreutils", "collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/", "defaultStatus": "affected"}, {"cpes": ["cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6"], "vendor": "Red Hat", "product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6", "packageName": "policycoreutils", "collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/", "defaultStatus": "unknown"}, {"cpes": ["cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7"], "vendor": "Red Hat", "product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7", "packageName": "policycoreutils", "collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/", "defaultStatus": "affected"}, {"cpes": ["cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8"], "vendor": "Red Hat", "product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8", "packageName": "policycoreutils", "collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/", "defaultStatus": "affected"}, {"cpes": ["cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9"], "vendor": "Red Hat", "product": "Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9", "packageName": "policycoreutils", "collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/", "defaultStatus": "affected"}, {"cpes": ["cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:4"], "vendor": "Red Hat", "product": "Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4", "packageName": "openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8", "collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/", "defaultStatus": "affected"}, {"cpes": ["cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:4"], "vendor": "Red Hat", "product": "Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4", "packageName": "openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9", "collectionURL": "https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/", "defaultStatus": "affected"}]}], "published": "2026-08-07T08:16:46.160", "references": [{"url": "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:51861", "source": "secalert@redhat.com"}, {"url": "https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-19079", "source": "secalert@redhat.com"}, {"url": "https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2511976", "source": "secalert@redhat.com"}, {"url": "https://github.com/SELinuxProject/selinux/commit/a556538c2d5d2583273e025b45c02651fef47679", "source": "secalert@redhat.com"}], "vulnStatus": "Awaiting Analysis", "weaknesses": [{"type": "Secondary", "source": "secalert@redhat.com", "description": [{"lang": "en", "value": "CWE-367"}]}], "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."}], "lastModified": "2026-09-01T13:18:12.570", "sourceIdentifier": "secalert@redhat.com"}