High CVSS 7.1
CVE-2026-54371
attr before version 2.6.0 contains a symlink traversal vulnerability in the getfattr and setfattr utilities that allows local attackers to escalate privileges by replacing a pathname component with a symbolic link during directory hierarchy traversal. Attackers who control a pathname component can redirect getfattr and setfattr operations to arbitrary files by substituting a symlink, leading to local privilege escalation when getfattr or setfattr is invoked by a privileged process over an attacker-controlled path.
What this means
- Exposure
- Exploitable with local access to the machine, with an ordinary user account and with no action from the victim.
- Impact
- An attacker can read sensitive data and modify or destroy data.
- Weakness
- The program follows a symbolic link without checking its target, so a local attacker can redirect it to a sensitive file.
- Likelihood
- Its EPSS score stays low: nothing points to imminent exploitation, which is no reason to leave it unpatched.
What to doFold into the next patch cycle.
Read automatically from the CVSS vector, the weakness type (CWE) and the EPSS score. The technical description above remains the one published by NIST.