CVE-2026-91203: Cockpit-files: cockpit-files: arbitrary file ownership and permission modification via symlink race condition
Telemetry drift only. No threshold crossed and no authority ruling changed.
CVE record, CISA KEV and EPSS as of 2026-10-18.
CVEs like this one computed, by meaning
What to do now held facts and links
- No fix version is held. The CNA's first reference is the place to look: access.redhat.com
- Record your decision, dated and frozen with today's evidence: patch by a date · mitigated by a compensating control · deferred · accepted the risk · not affected
- Check your version against the ranges this record publishes.
What it is stated by the CNA
A flaw was found in cockpit-files. This vulnerability allows a local attacker to exploit a timing issue, known as a symlink race condition, during privileged file operations such as changing file ownership or permissions. By manipulating directory entries and winning this race, the attacker can redirect these operations to unintended files. This could lead to unauthorized changes in file ownership and permissions on arbitrary files, potentially compromising system integrity and availability by altering system or application states or rendering services unusable.
- weakness
- CWE-363 Race Condition Enabling Link Following
- affected
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
- versions
- No affected-version range in held sources.
- fixed in
- No fix version in held sources.
- severity
- 6 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H
- assigned by
- redhat
- published
- 2026-09-18
check us access.redhat.com bugzilla.redhat.com
Exploit code held, dated
- exploit code
- None held in the PoC-in-GitHub feed. A public repository changes this brief.
What moved held, dated
| date | EPSS | event |
|---|---|---|
| 19 Sep 2026 | 0.00075 | |
| 28 Sep 2026 | 0.00097 | |
| 4 Oct 2026 | 0.00111 |
3 observations held. A step marked with a scoring model moved because the measurement was replaced, not because the vulnerability changed.
Outside the record researched, cited
This section reads the record's references and adds cited findings from outside it. It needs an account. Everything above is held facts and is complete without it.
What would change this brief held, dated
- CISA KEV
- Not listed in the catalogue we hold. A listing changes this brief.
- exploit probability
- 0.00 on 2026-10-04 (FIRST's EPSS, a probability and not evidence of exploitation). Next band line: 10% (0.10). Crossing a line changes this brief.
- fix
- No fix version is held. One published by the CNA or OSV changes this brief.
How to check this
Every value above is held with two dates: when it was true upstream (as_of) and when we recorded it (tx_from). Re-derive the exploit probability as it stood on any date:
SELECT value, source, source_version, as_of, tx_from
FROM volatile_valid_as_of('CVE-2026-91203', '2026-10-31T23:59:59.999999Z', now());