# CVE-2026-109970: Clevis: clevis: pkcs#11 token pin written to world-readable file

> Clevis writes PKCS#11 token PINs to world-readable files, allowing local attackers to read sensitive credentials and potentially decrypt disks.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 14 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 14 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-109970, GHSA-px84-jf5m-hcjv, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-109970

## What is CVE-2026-109970?

CVE-2026-109970 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published on 14 Oct 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

A flaw was found in the clevis PKCS#11 pin. The clevis-luks-pkcs11-askpin script writes the PKCS#11 token PIN in plaintext to a file without setting restrictive permissions. Under the default process umask, the file is world-readable. Additionally, the PIN file is not reliably cleaned up if the decryption script exits early, leaving the PIN accessible indefinitely.

Weakness: CWE-538 (Insertion of Sensitive Information into Externally-Accessible File or Directory)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-109970?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-109970?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-109970 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-109970 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-109970 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-109970 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published on 14 Oct 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-109970 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-109970/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-109970/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-109970
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-109970
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-109970

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From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-109970/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.