uutils coreutils chcon Security Bypass and Mandatory Access Control (MAC) Inconsistency via TOCTOU Race Condition

A Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) vulnerability exists in the chcon utility of uutils coreutils during recursive operations. The implementation resolves recursive targets using a fresh path lookup (via fts_accpath) rather than binding the traversal and label application to the specific directory state encountered during traversal. Because these operations are not anchored to file descriptors, a local attacker with write access to a directory tree can exploit timing-sensitive rename or symbolic link races to redirect a privileged recursive relabeling operation to unintended files or directories. This vulnerability breaks the hardening expectations for SELinux administration workflows and can lead to the unauthorized modification of security labels on sensitive system objects.

Source published

22 Apr 2026 16:09:09 UTC

Source modified

22 Apr 2026 17:14:38 UTC

Observed here

23 Oct 2026 15:48:27 UTC

Source terms

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CVSS 3.1 · 4.5 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L