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CVE-2026-19079

MEDIUM 4.4

Published 2026-08-07 · Last modified 2026-08-21

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.

NO EXPLOITATION SIGNALS

No known exploitation, public exploit, or elevated probability at this time. Track for changes.

Exploitation likelihood

0.1%chance of exploitation in 30 days · 0th percentile

○ In CISA KEV ○ Public exploit / PoC

Impact if exploited

4.4CVSS 3.1 · MEDIUM

  • ConfidentialityNone
  • IntegrityHigh
  • AvailabilityNone

What an attacker needs

  • ⚠Access: Requires local access to the host
  • ⚠Privileges: Requires a low-privilege account
  • ⚠User interaction: A user must take an action (click / open a file)
  • ⚠Complexity: Needs a race window or specific setup

✓ lowers the bar for an attacker · ⚠ raises it

Proof of concept & exploit code

Test against your own equipment

curl -s https://vulnpedia.com/cve/CVE-2026-19079/poc.jsonMachine-readable PoC index for this CVE (for automation).

Listed for defensive triage, patch verification, and authorized testing on systems you own. Machine-readable: /cve/CVE-2026-19079/poc.json

Affected

Vendors Red Hat

Products Red Hat Hardened Images Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Red Hat Openshift Container Platform 4

Weakness (CWE)

  • CWE-367: Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition

CVSS vector

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

All CVSS metrics

  • MEDIUM 4.4 v3.1 · CNA Primary
    CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
  • MEDIUM 4.4 v3.1 · NVD Secondary
    CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N

References

Advisories

Technical & other

Sources: NVD · CVE.org · EPSS