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
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uutils | coreutils | < 0.8.0 | 0.8.0 |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | rust-coreutils | 0.10.0-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | rust-coreutils | No fix yet | — |
| Debian 12 | rust-coreutils | No fix yet | — |
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | rust-coreutils | 0.10.0-1ubuntu1 | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | rust-coreutils | 0.10.0-1ubuntu2~26.04.1 | USN-9041-1 |
| Ubuntu 25.10 | rust-coreutils | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | rust-coreutils | No fix yet | — |
Wolfi
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wolfi rolling | uutils | 0.8.0-r2 | — |
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| crates.io | coreutils | <= 0.8.0 | — | GHSA-6g8r-74qp-6859 |
Advisories 1
- USN-9041-1 rust-coreutils vulnerabilities Ubuntu Security Notices (USN) · Nov 12, 2026
References
- https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/pull/11402 patch issue-tracking
- https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/releases/tag/0.8.0 vendor-advisory