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

Status: published. Published: 2026-09-10. Updated: 2026-11-04.

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.

## Remediation

- workaround: To mitigate this issue, adjust Polkit rules to require password authentication to start gvfsd-admin or remove execute permissions of the gvfsd-admin binary to prevent execution. (source: CNA: redhat)

## Affected products and versions

- GNOME / gvfs (gvfs): ≥ 1.48.1; < 1.62.0 (affected, semver); ≥ 1.48.1; < 1.60.3 (affected, semver); ≥ 1.48.1; < 1.58.5 (affected, semver). Source: CNA: redhat
- Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 (gvfs): ≥ 0:1.54.4-4.el10_2.1; < * (unaffected, rpm). Source: CNA: redhat
- Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10.0 Extended Update Support (gvfs): ≥ 0:1.54.4-2.el10_0.2; < * (unaffected, rpm). Source: CNA: redhat
- Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 (gvfs): ≥ 0:1.48.1-8.el9_8.1; < * (unaffected, rpm). Source: CNA: redhat
- Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Update Services for SAP Solutions (gvfs): ≥ 0:1.48.1-4.el9_2.1; < * (unaffected, rpm). Source: CNA: redhat
- Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 Update Services for SAP Solutions (gvfs): ≥ 0:1.48.1-4.el9_4.1; < * (unaffected, rpm). Source: CNA: redhat
- Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.6 Extended Update Support (gvfs): ≥ 0:1.48.1-6.el9_6.1; < * (unaffected, rpm). Source: CNA: redhat
- Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 (gvfs): Version range not reported. Source: CNA: redhat
- Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 (gvfs): Version range not reported. Source: CNA: redhat
- Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 (gvfs): Version range not reported. Source: CNA: redhat

## Severity and prioritization

- CVSS 3.1: 7 (high); CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H; source: CNA: redhat

- CISA KEV: No listing in collected sources

- EPSS: 0.22% as of 2026-11-04; percentile 12.98%

- SSVC: exploitation poc; automatable no; technical impact total; source ADP: CISA-ADP

- Weaknesses: CWE-367

## Exploit evidence

- exploit: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gvfs/-/issues/875 (ADP: CISA-ADP)

## References

- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:73998 (CNA: redhat; vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT)

- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:74370 (CNA: redhat; vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT)

- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:85939 (CNA: redhat; vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT)

- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:85941 (CNA: redhat; vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT)

- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:85942 (CNA: redhat; vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT)

- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:85944 (CNA: redhat; vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT)

- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-88924 (CNA: redhat; vdb-entry, x_refsource_REDHAT)

- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2531456 (CNA: redhat; issue-tracking, x_refsource_REDHAT)

- https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gvfs/-/issues/875 (CNA: redhat)

- https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/gvfs/-/issues/875 (ADP: CISA-ADP; exploit)

## Provenance

- CNA: redhat: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-88924; retrieved 2026-11-05; source updated 2026-11-04

- FIRST EPSS: https://api.first.org/data/v1/epss?cve=CVE-2026-88924; retrieved 2026-11-05; source updated Not reported

Revision: 5e07d0cb6ab568646340aa498db91de58f62080126ac00eee9ef615f8cd517c0

Canonical: https://y2.dev/cve/CVE-2026-88924

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