rsync < 3.5.0 Symlink Race Condition via ACL/xattr Application (RsyncProject rsync)

CVE-2026-53799
HIGH 7.2

At a glance

Source
NVD
EPSS
EPSS 0.12 % · percentile 2 ()
State
PUBLISHED
Published
Updated
Assigner
VulnCheck
NVD status
Analyzed

Description

rsync before 3.5.0 contains a symlink race condition vulnerability that allows local attackers to cause rsync to apply arbitrary ACLs or extended attributes to unintended files by substituting a symlink at a predictable destination path between the file write and the subsequent acl_set_file() or lsetxattr() call. Attackers can exploit this timing window to redirect ACL and xattr application through a crafted symlink to files outside the intended destination tree, potentially granting elevated permissions and enabling local privilege escalation.

Weaknesses (CWE)

  • CWE-59 — Improper Link Resolution Before File Access
  • CWE-367 — Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition

References

Scores

VersionScoreVectorScored by
CVSS 4.0HIGH 7.2CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:NVulnCheck
CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.3CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:NVulnCheck
CVSS 4.0HIGH 7.2CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:H/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:XNVD · disclosure@vulncheck.com (Secondary)
CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.3CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:NNVD · disclosure@vulncheck.com (Secondary)

European references

Affected configurations (NVD CPE)

Affected products

ProductVersions
RsyncProject · rsyncaffected 0 ≤ 3.4.4 ; unaffected 3.5.0

Sources

SourceLicence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVDENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feedsPublic domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD