CVE-2026-54230 PUBLISHED

Abrt: event handler scripts follow symlinks when writing output files, allowing arbitrary file overwrites

Assigner: redhat
Reserved: 12.06.2026 Published: 13.06.2026 Updated: 13.06.2026

A symlink following vulnerability was found in the ABRT post-create event handler scripts in libreport. Event scripts write output files using shell redirections without the O_NOFOLLOW flag. If the target file is replaced with a symlink, the shell process running as root follows the symlink and writes content to the symlink target, allowing arbitrary file overwrites on the system.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS Score: 7

Product Status

Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Versions Default: unknown
Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Versions Default: affected
Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Versions Default: affected

Workarounds

The following practices would help for avoiding exposure and mitigate this flaw:

  • Disable or remove ABRT if it is not required. On RHEL 8 systems where ABRT is installed, it can be disabled with: systemctl disable --now abrtd.service abrt-journal-core.service abrt-oops.service abrt-xorg.service
  • On Fedora systems, consider using systemd-coredump instead of ABRT for crash handling
  • Restrict local user access to systems running ABRT, as this vulnerability requires local access

Credits

  • Red Hat would like to thank Red Team (Deutsche Telekom Security GmbH) for reporting this issue.

References

Problem Types

  • Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following') CWE