CVE-2026-91205: Cockpit-files: cockpit-files: local attacker can hijack file ownership via symlink race

Severity: medium (CVSS 6.0 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: 2026-09-18 · updated 2026-10-19
Weakness: CWE-363

Description

A flaw was found in cockpit-files. A local unprivileged attacker can exploit a race condition during directory creation with owner assignment. By controlling a writable parent directory, the attacker can replace a newly created directory with a symbolic link (symlink) before the ownership change operation (chown) is applied. This allows the attacker to redirect the ownership change to an arbitrary file, potentially leading to information disclosure or unauthorized modification of sensitive files.

Affected products

Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10: all versions
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9: all versions — fixed in 0:36.1-1.el9_8

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 0:36.1-1.el9_8. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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