CVE-2026-53287 audit: fix incorrect inheritable capability in CAPSET records
Attackers can mask privilege escalation attempts in audit logs due to incorrect capability recording, compromising forensic analysis and compliance monitoring.
- 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
What is CVE-2026-53287?
CVE-2026-53287 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 26 Jun 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
audit: fix incorrect inheritable capability in CAPSET records
__audit_log_capset() records the effective capability set into the inheritable field due to a copy-paste error. Every CAPSET audit record therefore reports cap_pi (process inheritable) with the value of cap_effective instead of cap_inheritable.
This silently corrupts audit data used for compliance and forensic analysis: an attacker who modifies inheritable capabilities to prepare for a privilege-escalating exec would have the change masked in the audit trail.
The bug has been present since the original introduction of CAPSET audit records in 2008.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-53287?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2026-53287?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-53287 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-53287 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as BELL-CVE-2026-53287, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-53287, GHSA-7w44-35gq-6jc3, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-11-CVE-2026-53287, ROOT-OS-DEBIAN-12-CVE-2026-53287, ROOT-OS-UBUNTU-2204-CVE-2026-53287 and 2 more.