What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2026-53803: rsync < 3.5.0 Symlink Following Arbitrary File Overwrite

• Severity: high (CVSS 7.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.2% 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 following vulnerability that allows local attackers to overwrite arbitrary files by placing a symlink at a predictable output path such as --log-file, --write-batch, or daemon-mode log and statistics paths. Attackers can exploit rsync's failure to reject symlinks during ancillary file writes to redirect output to arbitrary filesystem locations, achieving local privilege escalation on installations where rsync runs with elevated privileges such as setuid or privileged daemon configurations.

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-g9f4-7q66-9582
• https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/rsync-symlink-following-arbitrary-file-overwrite

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