CVE-2026-79619 PUBLISHED

OpenZFS: user-namespace capability check allows unprivileged local authorization bypass

Assigner: canonical
Reserved: 25.08.2026 Published: 26.08.2026 Updated: 26.08.2026

On Linux, several OpenZFS ioctl authorization checks accept a capability held only within a user-created, unprivileged namespace as equivalent to real host privilege, allowing an unprivileged local user to perform operations that should require root. Affected operations include pool-administrative operations (eg create, import, destroy), pool event log access (zpool events) and fault injection (zinject). Exploiting the problem requires only that the local user is permitted to open /dev/zfs (governed by local device permissions) and that the kernel permits unprivileged user namespace creation. No prior access to the target pool or its underlying devices is needed.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CVSS Score: 7.3

Product Status

Vendor OpenZFS
Product OpenZFS
Versions Default: unaffected
  • affected from 0 to 2.2.11 (excl.)
  • affected from 2.3.0 to 2.3.9 (excl.)
  • affected from 2.4.0 to 2.4.4 (excl.)

Credits

  • Erica Windisch reporter
  • Rob Norris remediation developer

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization CWE