Description
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.
Affected products
uutils: coreutils
References2
- github.com/uutils/coreutils/pull/11402 Issue Tracking
- github.com/uutils/coreutils/releases/tag/0.8.0 Release Notes
Metrics
- CVSS 3.1
-
5.8
MEDIUM
Score source: NVD
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:H/A:L - EPSS — exploit probability
- 0% percentile: 1 · as of 13 November 2026
- CWE
- CWE-367
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