A vulnerability in the chmod utility of uutils coreutils allows users to bypass the --preserve-root safety mechanism. The implementation only validates if the target path is literally / and does not canonicalize the path. An attacker or accidental user can use path variants such as /../ or symbolic links to execute destructive recursive operations (e.g., chmod -R 000) on the entire root filesystem, leading to system-wide permission loss and potential complete system breakdown.
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References
History
Wed, 22 Apr 2026 16:30:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Description | A vulnerability in the chmod utility of uutils coreutils allows users to bypass the --preserve-root safety mechanism. The implementation only validates if the target path is literally / and does not canonicalize the path. An attacker or accidental user can use path variants such as /../ or symbolic links to execute destructive recursive operations (e.g., chmod -R 000) on the entire root filesystem, leading to system-wide permission loss and potential complete system breakdown. | |
| Title | uutils coreutils chmod Path Traversal Bypass of --preserve-root | |
| Weaknesses | CWE-22 | |
| References |
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| Metrics |
cvssV3_1
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Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: canonical
Published:
Updated: 2026-04-22T18:10:15.172Z
Reserved: 2026-04-02T12:58:56.086Z
Link: CVE-2026-35338
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Status : Received
Published: 2026-04-22T17:16:35.583
Modified: 2026-04-22T17:16:35.583
Link: CVE-2026-35338
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OpenCVE Enrichment
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Weaknesses