CVE-2026-35359
Description
A Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) vulnerability in the cp utility of uutils coreutils allows an attacker to bypass no-dereference intent. The utility checks if a source path is a symbolic link using path-based metadata but subsequently opens it without the O_NOFOLLOW flag. An attacker with concurrent write access can swap a regular file for a symbolic link during this window, causing a privileged cp process to copy the contents of arbitrary sensitive files into a destination controlled by the attacker.
Statement
Red Hat Product Security has determined that this vulnerability does not affect any currently supported Red Hat product. This assessment may evolve based on further analysis and discovery. For more information about this vulnerability and the products it affects, please see the linked references.
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity,Other
Technical Impact: Alter Execution Logic; Unexpected State
The attacker can gain access to otherwise unauthorized resources.
Integrity,Other
Technical Impact: Modify Application Data; Modify Files or Directories; Modify Memory; Other
Race conditions such as this kind may be employed to gain read or write access to resources which are not normally readable or writable by the user in question.
Integrity,Other
Technical Impact: Other
The resource in question, or other resources (through the corrupted one), may be changed in undesirable ways by a malicious user.
Non-Repudiation
Technical Impact: Hide Activities
If a file or other resource is written in this method, as opposed to in a valid way, logging of the activity may not occur.
Non-Repudiation,Other
Technical Impact: Other
In some cases it may be possible to delete files a malicious user might not otherwise have access to, such as log files.
Other
Technical Impact: Unexpected State
The product may perform invalid actions when the resource is in an unexpected state.
Frequently Asked Questions
Not sure what something means? Check out our Security Glossary.
Want to get errata notifications? Sign up here.
