# CVE-2026-88924: Gvfs: gvfs-admin socket ownership race permits local root

> A local attacker can exploit a race condition in gvfs-admin to change ownership of root-owned files, achieving full privilege escalation to root.

- **Severity:** High 7.0 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **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:** 10 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 20 Oct 2026
- **Also known as:** CLSA-2026-1792166468, CLSA-2026-1792212029, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-88924, GHSA-8w8m-36rw-gg63, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-88924

## What is CVE-2026-88924?

CVE-2026-88924 is a high-severity vulnerability in GNOME Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published on 10 Sep 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 admin backend of gvfs. The privileged gvfsd-admin daemon changes the ownership of newly created private D-Bus sockets by calling the link-following chown() function on a pathname inside a user-controlled directory. A local attacker can exploit this via a Time-of-Check Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) race condition and exchange the socket pathname with a symbolic link pointing to an arbitrary root-owned file (such as /etc/pam.d/su). The daemon subsequently follows the symlink and changes the ownership of the targeted root-owned file to the attacker's user ID. This allows an authenticated local attacker to modify critical system files, leading to a full local privilege escalation to root.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-88924?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-88924?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-88924 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-88924 exists.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-88924 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-88924 is a high-severity vulnerability in GNOME Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published on 10 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-88924 exists.

Affected product: GNOME 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-2026-88924/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-88924/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-88924
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-88924
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-88924

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-88924/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.