Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use Vulnerability in uutils Coreutils

CVE-2026-35376

What is CVE-2026-35376?

A timing attack vulnerability has been identified in the chcon utility of uutils coreutils that arises during recursive operations. This issue stems from the method in which recursive targets are resolved; the implementation uses a fresh path lookup that decouples it from the directory state encountered during traversal. Consequently, a local attacker with write access can exploit timing-sensitive rename or symbolic link races. This may allow them to redirect privileged recursive relabeling processes to unintended files or directories. Such exploitation undermines the hardening protocols for SELinux administration workflows and can lead to unauthorized modifications of security labels on crucial system objects.

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