Arbitrary file modification via privileged symlink race
Published Sep 18, 2026 · Updated Sep 18, 2026
Race condition in cockpit-files on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 allows local users to alter ownership or permissions on arbitrary files. During privileged ownership or permission changes, cockpit-files checks a target path and later acts on it without preventing replacement by a symlink. Exploitation requires a privileged Cockpit user to operate in an attacker-writable directory while the local attacker wins the timing race.
Summary
What happened
Race condition in cockpit-files on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 allows local users to alter ownership or permissions on arbitrary files. During privileged ownership or permission changes, cockpit-files checks a target path and later acts on it without preventing replacement by a symlink. Exploitation requires a privileged Cockpit user to operate in an attacker-writable directory while the local attacker wins the timing race.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2026-91203
- Published
- Sep 18, 2026
- Updated
- Sep 18, 2026
- Vendor
- Commonhaus Foundation
- Product
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
- Classifications
- CWE-363, T1222.002
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Sep 18, 2026CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Sep 18, 2026Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.
Exploitability
Present is not the same as exploitable
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Is a vulnerable build present?
Affected versions are unavailable in this record. Check the vendor advisory for version and patch details.
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.
Attacks
What attackers are doing with it
Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.
Activity data is delayed. The latest report is Sep 28, 2026.
Weakness, pattern, technique
Public exploit references
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Technologies
Your stack
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