Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessTrick user into installing malicious Flatpak
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DeliveryApp replaces .ld.so with symlink in sandbox
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Exploitregenerate_ld_cache follows symlink
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ExecutionNon-attacker-controlled files written to arbitrary path
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ImpactLimited integrity/availability impact on host
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V5 - File Handling UNIX symlink resolution
|
| Exploitation Conditions | Requires a malicious application already installed and running inside a Flatpak sandbox on the local host running Flatpak before 1.18.1; the app must be able to replace its per-app ~/.var/app/$appid/.ld.so file with a symlink and then trigger (or wait for) regenerate_ld_cache to follow it. Exploitation is strongly LIMITED by: local access only (AV:L); high complexity (AC:H) due to timing/state control; and the vendor-confirmed constraint that written filenames and content are NOT attacker-controlled, preventing arbitrary code delivery. The realistic precondition is that a user was induced to install an untrusted Flatpak app, so despite the vector's PR:N/UI:N this is not remotely reachable and depends on prior malicious-app installation. |
| Impact | This is a LOW real-world priority despite being a genuine flaw. All exploitation signals point to marginal risk: the CVSS 3.1 vector (AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L, base 4.0) already reflects local-only access, high attack complexity, and only partial integrity/availability impact with no confidentiality loss. The vendor advisory (GHSA-99wv-m8rp-g58x) explicitly states the attack is 'hard to exploit' because neither the filenames nor the content written by regenerate_ld_cache are attacker-controlled - so an attacker can force writes to an arbitrary location but cannot choose what lands there, sharply limiting weaponization. Exploitation status: no public exploit identified at time of analysis (no KEV listing, no EPSS score supplied, no POC referenced). No SSVC decision points were provided in the input. Note a metadata inconsistency: the CVSS vector uses PR:N (no privileges), yet the attack requires a malicious sandboxed Flatpak app to already be installed and running, which in practice implies the user was tricked into installing untrusted software (UI:R) - the published vector does not capture that, so raw PR:N/UI:N slightly overstates ease of access. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | A user installs a malicious Flatpak application; from inside its sandbox the app replaces its own ~/.var/app/$appid/.ld.so with a symlink pointing elsewhere on the filesystem. When Flatpak next runs regenerate_ld_cache, it follows the symlink and writes the ld cache to that arbitrary target location. Because the written filenames and content are fixed (not attacker-controlled), the practical impact is limited to file clobbering/denial rather than reliable code execution, and no public POC is known. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Sep 23, 2026
Symlink-following during ld.so cache regeneration in Flatpak before 1.18.1 lets a malicious sandboxed application replace its per-app ~/.var/app/$appid/.ld.so path with a symlink so that Flatpak's regenerate_ld_cache writes cache files at an arbitrary attacker-chosen location. The impact is limited to low-integrity file writes on the local host: the written filenames and content are generated by Flatpak and are not attacker-controlled, so this cannot deliver arbitrary code or leak data, and CVSS 3.1 is 4.0 (AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L per independent reassessment). Exploitation requires a user to have installed and run an untrusted Flatpak app from a non-trusted source; there is no public exploit code identified at time of analysis, and the vendor's own advisory characterizes it as hard to exploit.
RemediationAI
Upgrade to Flatpak 1.18.1 or later, which is the vendor-released fix for CVE-2026-96807; the upstream advisory is GHSA-99wv-m8rp-g58x at https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/security/advisories/GHSA-99wv-m8rp-g58x. Where a distribution has not yet packaged 1.18.1, track that vendor's backport advisory and confirm the installed version with flatpak --version before assuming you are covered, since the CPE marks every release before 1.18.1 as affected. As compensating controls, restrict Flatpak installations to curated/trusted remotes so a malicious sandboxed app cannot be introduced in the first place (trade-off: reduces the breadth of software users can run), and audit per-application data directories for suspicious symlinks at ~/.var/app/*/.ld.so, removing or replacing any .ld.so entry that is not a directory so the cache is regenerated safely (trade-off: Flatpak will recreate the cache on next run, causing a one-time delay). Running Flatpak applications under a dedicated unprivileged user account confines any follow-on write primitive to that user's home directory rather than the primary user's data, at the cost of additional administration and separate per-user flatpak state. Do not rely on restricting network access or sandbox permissions as a mitigation, since the symlink manipulation and the cache regeneration both occur on the local host with local file access.
Affected VersionsENISA
Affected Packages
Source: OSV (Open Source Vulnerabilities)
Affects your stack
Affects 1 package in euvd
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
The flaw is CWE-61 (UNIX Symbolic Link Following) in Flatpak's ld.so cache regeneration routine. Flatpak maintains a per-application runtime data directory, ~/.var/app/$appid/, and within it a .ld.so path used as the target for regenerated dynamic-linker cache files. A process inside the sandbox owns and can manipulate that directory, so it can delete or replace the .ld.so entry with a symlink pointing to any location writable by the user outside the sandbox. When regenerate_ld_cache runs (typically after installation/update or a permissions change), it follows the symlink rather than rejecting a non-directory target, and its writes land at the symlink destination. Because the cache filenames and contents are produced by Flatpak and are neither attacker-chosen nor attacker-supplied, the primitive is a constrained arbitrary-location file write/clobber rather than arbitrary code execution. The CPE cpe:2.3:a:flatpak:flatpak:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* indicates all Flatpak releases before the fixed 1.18.1 are in scope, and the unreleased boundary means deployments on older distro-packaged Flatpak builds (1.14.x, 1.16.x and earlier branches) remain affected until backports are applied. The reported CVSS 3.1 vector treats the issue as local with high attack complexity, no privileges required and no user interaction, while the authoritative reassessment raises user interaction to required (UI:R), reflecting the real precondition that a user must first be induced to install the untrusted sandboxed app.
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L
Local malicious sandboxed app requires prior user install (UI:R) and precise state control (AC:H); no attacker-controlled content limits impact to partial integrity/availability with no confidentiality.
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:L
Primary rating from Vendor (mitre).
CVSS VectorVendor: mitre
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
In Flatpak before 1.18.1, a malicious sandboxed app can replace ~/.var/app/$appid/.ld.so with a symlink, causing regenerate_ld_cache to write files at an arbitrary location. The filenames and content are not attacker controlled, making this hard to exploit.
Threat Intelligence Overview
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Sandbox escape in Flatpak versions prior to 1.16.4 allows applications to access arbitrary host filesystem paths and ach
Flatpak before 1.0.8, 1.1.x and 1.2.x before 1.2.4, and 1.3.x before 1.3.1 allows a sandbox bypass. Rated critical sever
Flatpak is a system for building, distributing, and running sandboxed desktop applications on Linux. Rated high severity
In dbus-proxy/flatpak-proxy.c in Flatpak before 0.8.9, and 0.9.x and 0.10.x before 0.10.3, crafted D-Bus messages to the
Arbitrary file deletion in Flatpak versions prior to 1.16.4 allows sandboxed applications to delete files on the host sy
Message-filtering bypass in xdg-dbus-proxy before 0.1.9 lets a malicious or already-compromised sandboxed application -
Flatpak is a system for building, distributing, and running sandboxed desktop applications on Linux. Rated high severity
Flatpak before 1.0.7, and 1.1.x and 1.2.x before 1.2.3, exposes /proc in the apply_extra script sandbox, which allows at
In Flatpak before 0.8.7, a third-party app repository could include malicious apps that contain files with inappropriate
Flatpak is a system for building, distributing, and running sandboxed desktop applications on Linux. Rated high severity
Local privilege escalation to root in Flatpak before 1.18.1 lets an unprivileged user holding an active local session ab
Path traversal in Flatpak's app deployment handling of the exported files/etc directory allows a malicious Flatpak appli
Same weakness CWE-61 – UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following
View allVendor StatusVendor
SUSE
Severity: Moderate| Product | Status |
|---|---|
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP7 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.1 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 16.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 12 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 12 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP4-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP5-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP6-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 6 | Affected |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 7 | Affected |
| SUSE Enterprise Storage 7.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP5 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP1-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP2-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP3-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP4-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP5-ESPOS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Real Time 15 SP4 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-BCL | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP1-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-BCL | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP2-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-BCL | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 15 SP3-LTSS | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP1 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP2 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP Applications 15 SP3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.2 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Proxy 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.2 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Retail Branch Server 4.3 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.0 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.1 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.2 | Affected |
| SUSE Manager Server 4.3 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.3 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.4 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.5 | Affected |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | Affected |
| SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for NVIDIA 16.1 | Affected |
EUVD-2026-85423
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
GitHub
VulDB
Exploit-DB