Severity by source
AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Local unprivileged user (AV:L, PR:L) must win a TOCTOU race (AC:H) with no user interaction; successful capability injection yields full root, so C:H/I:H/A:H.
AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Primary rating from NVD.
CVSS VectorNVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Lifecycle Timeline
8DescriptionNVD
A flaw was found in libcap. A local unprivileged user can exploit a Time-of-check-to-time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition in the cap_set_file() function. This allows an attacker with write access to a parent directory to redirect file capability updates to an attacker-controlled file. By doing so, capabilities can be injected into or stripped from unintended executables, leading to privilege escalation.
AnalysisAI
Local privilege escalation in libcap's cap_set_file() function affects Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 through 10 and OpenShift Container Platform 4, where a TOCTOU race condition allows an unprivileged user with write access to a parent directory to redirect file capability updates onto an attacker-controlled file. Successful exploitation can inject or strip Linux file capabilities on arbitrary executables, yielding full privilege escalation on the host. No public exploit identified at time of analysis and EPSS is 0.01%, but a vendor patch is available.
Technical ContextAI
libcap is the userspace library implementing the POSIX.1e capability model on Linux, providing the setcap/getcap utilities and the cap_set_file() API that wraps the underlying setxattr() syscall on the security.capability extended attribute. The flaw is a classic CWE-367 Time-of-Check Time-of-Use race: cap_set_file() resolves and validates a path before performing the capability write, so between those two steps an attacker who controls the containing directory can swap the target (for example via rename or symlink manipulation) so the privileged xattr is applied to a file the attacker chose rather than the one validated. Because Linux file capabilities are honored on execve() and can grant powers such as CAP_SETUID, CAP_DAC_OVERRIDE, or CAP_SYS_ADMIN, redirecting that write to an attacker-controlled SUID-like target produces full local privilege escalation. The affected products per CPE are Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 and Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4, all of which ship libcap as a core dependency.
RemediationAI
Patch available per vendor advisory: update libcap to the fixed package versions distributed in RHSA-2026:7473 (and the follow-on errata RHSA-2026:12423, RHSA-2026:12441, RHSA-2026:13285) for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6/7/8/9/10 and OpenShift Container Platform 4, and to the equivalents in SUSE-SU-2026:1432 / SUSE-SU-2026:1433 for SUSE; on RHEL run 'dnf update libcap' and reboot or restart services that link against it. Until patched, the most effective compensating control is to ensure no unprivileged user has write access to any parent directory of a path that root or another capability-bearing process passes to setcap/cap_set_file() - audit build pipelines, container image builders, and shared scratch directories for directories writable by untrusted users that contain executables ever subjected to setcap, and relocate setcap operations into root-owned, mode 0755 directories. Where feasible, avoid running setcap on files in user-writable trees and prefer baking capabilities into immutable images; note that disabling file capabilities entirely is rarely practical because many distro packages rely on them (ping, etc.).
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View allVendor StatusVendor
SUSE
Severity: Medium| Product | Status |
|---|---|
| Container private-registry/harbor-core:1.1.2-2.22 Container private-registry/harbor-exporter:1.1.2-2.22 Container private-registry/harbor-jobservice:1.1.2-2.22 Container private-registry/harbor-portal:1.1.2-2.23 Container private-registry/harbor-registry:1.1.2-2.22 Container private-registry/harbor-registryctl:1.1.2-2.22 Container private-registry/harbor-trivy-adapter:1.1.2-2.25 Container suse/manager/4.3/proxy-httpd:4.3.17.9.76.10 Container suse/manager/4.3/proxy-salt-broker:4.3.17.9.66.11 Container suse/manager/4.3/proxy-squid:4.3.17.9.75.8 Container suse/manager/4.3/proxy-ssh:4.3.17.9.66.8 Container suse/manager/4.3/proxy-tftpd:4.3.17.9.66.9 Container suse/sle-micro/base-5.5:2.0.4-5.8.263 Container suse/sle-micro/kvm-5.5:2.0.4-3.5.507 | Affected |
| Container suse/ltss/sle12.5/sles12sp5:8.5.225 | Affected |
| Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/baremetal-os-container:2.1.3-6.163 Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container:2.1.3-7.130 Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/kvm-os-container:2.1.3-6.147 | Affected |
| Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/toolbox:13.2-9.96 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Proxy LTS 4.3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server LTS 4.3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Server LTS 4.3 | Fixed |
| openSUSE Tumbleweed | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro for Rancher 5.3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro for Rancher 5.4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP7 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Micro 6.0 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Micro 6.1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Micro 6.2 | Fixed |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP6 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS Extended Security | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Proxy LTS 4.3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server LTS 4.3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Server LTS 4.3 | Fixed |
| SUSE CaaS Platform 3.0 | Fixed |
| SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0 | Fixed |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 6 | Fixed |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 7 | Fixed |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 12 SP4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP6 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-ESPOS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-ESPOS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-ESPOS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP6 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15-ESPOS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.0 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Basesystem 15 SP3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Point of Sale 12 SP2-CLIENT | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP1-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2-BCL | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2-ESPOS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP2-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3-BCL | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3-ESPOS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP3-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4-ESPOS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP4-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-BCL | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-BCL | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-BCL | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15-LTSS | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for Raspberry Pi 12 SP2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 12 SP4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP3 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP4 | Fixed |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Software Development Kit 12 SP5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.0 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.0 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.2 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.0 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.1 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.2 | Fixed |
| SUSE OpenStack Cloud 7 | Fixed |
| SUSE OpenStack Cloud 8 | Fixed |
| SUSE OpenStack Cloud 9 | Fixed |
| SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 8 | Fixed |
| SUSE OpenStack Cloud Crowbar 9 | Fixed |
| openSUSE Leap 15.3 | Fixed |
| openSUSE Leap 15.4 | Fixed |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | Fixed |
| openSUSE Leap Micro 5.2 | Fixed |
| openSUSE Leap Micro 5.3 | Fixed |
| openSUSE Leap Micro 5.4 | Fixed |
| openSUSE Leap Micro 5.5 | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 LTS | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.3 LTS | Fixed |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.3 LTS | Fixed |
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-20910