What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-53799: rsync < 3.5.0 Symlink Race Condition via ACL/xattr Application

• Severity: medium (CVSS 6.3 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-08-13 · updated 2026-10-24
• Weakness: CWE-59

Description

rsync before 3.5.0 contains a symlink race condition vulnerability that allows local attackers to cause rsync to apply arbitrary ACLs or extended attributes to unintended files by substituting a symlink at a predictable destination path between the file write and the subsequent acl_set_file() or lsetxattr() call. Attackers can exploit this timing window to redirect ACL and xattr application through a crafted symlink to files outside the intended destination tree, potentially granting elevated permissions and enabling local privilege escalation.

Affected products

• RsyncProject rsync: before 3.5.0 — fixed in 3.5.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: RsyncProject rsync 3.5.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/RsyncProject/rsync/releases/tag/v3.5.0
• https://github.com/RsyncProject/rsync/security/advisories/GHSA-phxh-hjqv-39c9
• https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/rsync-symlink-race-condition-via-acl-xattr-application

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