CVE-2026-96807 Path traversal in Flatpak
A malicious sandboxed app can exploit a symlink vulnerability to write files to arbitrary locations, potentially modifying system files.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-96807?
CVE-2026-96807 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Flatpak, published on 23 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In Flatpak before 1.18.1, a malicious sandboxed app can replace ~/.var/app/$appid/.ld.so with a symlink, causing regenerate_ld_cache to write files at an arbitrary location. The filenames and content are not attacker controlled, making this hard to exploit.
Weakness: CWE-61
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-96807?
How do I fix CVE-2026-96807?
Upgrade to a fixed version.
Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.
Is CVE-2026-96807 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-96807 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as CLSA-2026-1791735057, CLSA-2026-1791819150, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-96807, GHSA-99wv-m8rp-g58x, OESA-2026-4570, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-96807.