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.
Affected products
uutils: coreutils
References2
- github.com/uutils/coreutils/pull/10033 Issue TrackingPatch
- github.com/uutils/coreutils/releases/tag/0.6.0 Release Notes
Metrics
- CVSS 3.1
-
7.3
HIGH
Score source: CNA
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H - EPSS — exploit probability
- 0% percentile: 7 · as of 13 November 2026
- CWE
- CWE-22
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