# CVE-2026-19079: Policycoreutils: policycoreutils: toctou race condition in fixfiles allows arbitrary selinux label manipulation

> A local attacker can exploit a race condition in fixfiles to manipulate SELinux labels on arbitrary files, potentially bypassing mandatory access controls.

- **Severity:** Medium 4.4 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** A user has to click or open something
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 7 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 1 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-19079, GHSA-8hc6-8f5m-vmq3, RHSA-2026:51861, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-19079

## What is CVE-2026-19079?

CVE-2026-19079 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published on 7 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.

### Official description

A TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) race condition vulnerability was found in the fixfiles script in policycoreutils. When running fixfiles relabel or fixfiles restore, the script used find and chcon commands to locate and relabel unlabeled files under /tmp and other directories. A local attacker could exploit a race window between the file discovery and the label change operation by swapping directory components with symlinks, causing chcon to follow the symlink and modify SELinux labels on arbitrary system files. This could undermine SELinux mandatory access control protections on critical files such as /etc/shadow.

Weakness: CWE-367 (Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-19079?


| Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| `policycoreutils` | Red Hat:hummingbird:1 | All versions | 0:3.11-2.2.hum1 |
| `policycoreutils-dbus` | Red Hat:hummingbird:1 | All versions | 0:3.11-2.2.hum1 |
| `policycoreutils-devel` | Red Hat:hummingbird:1 | All versions | 0:3.11-2.2.hum1 |
| `policycoreutils-gui` | Red Hat:hummingbird:1 | All versions | 0:3.11-2.2.hum1 |
| `policycoreutils-newrole` | Red Hat:hummingbird:1 | All versions | 0:3.11-2.2.hum1 |
| `policycoreutils-python-utils` | Red Hat:hummingbird:1 | All versions | 0:3.11-2.2.hum1 |
| `policycoreutils-restorecond` | Red Hat:hummingbird:1 | All versions | 0:3.11-2.2.hum1 |
| `policycoreutils-sandbox` | Red Hat:hummingbird:1 | All versions | 0:3.11-2.2.hum1 |
| `python3-policycoreutils` | Red Hat:hummingbird:1 | All versions | 0:3.11-2.2.hum1 |

## How do I fix CVE-2026-19079?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-19079 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-19079 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-19079 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-19079 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published on 7 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-19079 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-2026-19079/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-19079/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-19079
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-19079
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-19079

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-19079/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.