CVE-2026-55567 BleachBit: Exploit File Delete to Escalate Privilege
A local attacker can exploit a race condition in BleachBit's privileged file deletion to escalate privileges to SYSTEM on Windows.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-55567?
CVE-2026-55567 is a high-severity vulnerability in bleachbit, published on 21 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
BleachBit cleans files to free disk space and to maintain privacy. Prior to 6.0.1, privileged Windows cleaning does not lock and validate a target's parent directory before deletion. A local unprivileged user can replace that directory with a Windows junction and use a native symlink to redirect the elevated deletion to an attacker-selected file. The arbitrary privileged file deletion can be combined with Windows Installer behavior to obtain local SYSTEM privileges. This issue is fixed in version 6.0.1.
Weakness: CWE-367
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-55567?
How do I fix CVE-2026-55567?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-55567 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Is CVE-2026-55567 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-55567 exists.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-vcjw-px28-5w94.