Debian APT Package Download redirect

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability identified as problematic has been detected in Debian APT. Affected is an unknown function of the component Package Download. The manipulation leads to redirect. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2026-109518. The attack can be initiated remotely. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as problematic, has been found in Debian APT (affected version not known). This issue affects some unknown functionality of the component Package Download. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a redirect vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-601. A web application accepts a user-controlled input that specifies a link to an external site, and uses that link in a Redirect. This simplifies phishing attacks. Impacted is integrity. The summary by CVE is:

On Debian, Ubuntu, and derivative Linux distributions, an on-path attacker who can manipulate the HTTP traffic (including a malicious mirror or proxy) between an APT client and an archive server triggered by a package install can trick the client into installing an attacker-controlled unverified package and achieve remote code execution with root privileges. The vulnerability is caused by the reuse of hard links and requires the client to follow redirects and retry the download of package files. It requires the client to have a non-zero Acquire::Retries configuration setting; the value 3 is the default starting with Debian 12 (bookworm) and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish), so older releases are unaffected in a default configuration

It is possible to read the advisory at lists.debian.org. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-109518 since 10/12/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. No form of authentication is needed for a successful exploitation. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $5k-$25k at the moment (estimation calculated on 11/04/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1204.001 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

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Productinfo

Vendor

• Debian

Name

• APT

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.debian.org/

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