CVE-2026-19079
Policycoreutils: policycoreutils: toctou race condition in fixfiles allows arbitrary selinux label manipulation
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.
INFO
Published Date :
Aug. 7, 2026, 8:16 a.m.
Last Modified :
Aug. 7, 2026, 8:16 a.m.
Remotely Exploit :
No
Source :
[email protected]
Affected Products
The following products are affected by CVE-2026-19079
vulnerability.
Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the
products
that
are
affected, the information is not represented in the table below.
CVSS Scores
| Score | Version | Severity | Vector | Exploitability Score | Impact Score | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM | 53f830b8-0a3f-465b-8143-3b8a9948e749 | ||||
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM | [email protected] |
Solution
- Update policycoreutils to a patched version.
- Review and test script logic for TOCTOU vulnerabilities.
- Implement stronger checks for file system integrity.
References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools
Here, you will find a curated list of external links that provide in-depth
information, practical solutions, and valuable tools related to
CVE-2026-19079.
CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration
While CVE identifies
specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or
weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-19079 is
associated with the following CWEs:
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification
(CAPEC)
stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and
approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2026-19079
weaknesses.
We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).
Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.
The following list is the news that have been mention
CVE-2026-19079 vulnerability anywhere in the article.
The following table lists the changes that have been made to the
CVE-2026-19079 vulnerability over time.
Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.
-
New CVE Received by [email protected]
Aug. 07, 2026
Action Type Old Value New Value Added 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:hummingbird:1'], 'vendor': 'Red Hat', 'product': 'Red Hat Hardened Images', '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': 'rhcos', 'collectionURL': 'https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/', 'defaultStatus': 'affected'}] Added 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. Added CVSS V3.1 AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N Added CWE CWE-367 Added Reference https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-19079 Added Reference https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2511976 Added Reference https://github.com/SELinuxProject/selinux/commit/a556538c2d5d2583273e025b45c02651fef47679