Uutils coreutils up to 0.5.x chmod Utility path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Uutils coreutils up to 0.5.x. The affected element is an unknown function of the component chmod Utility. Executing a manipulation can lead to path traversal. This vulnerability is tracked as CVE-2026-35338. The attack is restricted to local execution. No exploit exists. Upgrading the affected component is advised.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Uutils coreutils up to 0.5.x. This vulnerability affects an unknown function of the component chmod Utility. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-22. The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

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.

The weakness was disclosed by Zellic. The advisory is available at github.com. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-35338 since 04/02/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. Local access is required to approach this attack. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not available. This vulnerability is assigned to T1006 by the MITRE ATT&CK project.

The vulnerability scanner Nessus provides a plugin with the ID 309849 (Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-35338), which helps to determine the existence of the flaw in a target environment.

Upgrading to version 0.6.0 eliminates this vulnerability.

The vulnerability is also documented in the databases at Tenable (309849) and EUVD (EUVD-2026-24963). If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

Productinfo

Vendor

• Uutils

Name

• coreutils

Version

• 0.1
• 0.2
• 0.3
• 0.4
• 0.5

Website

• Product: https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/

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If you want to get best quality of vulnerability data, you may have to visit VulDB.

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