Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Affecting libcap2 package, versions <2.73-160000.3.1


Severity

Recommended
0.0
high
0
10

Based on SUSE Linux Enterprise Server security rating.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.2% (10th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-SLES1600-LIBCAP2-16331440
  • published1 May 2026
  • disclosed22 Apr 2026

Introduced: 22 Apr 2026

CVE-2026-4878  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-367  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade SLES:16.0.0 libcap2 to version 2.73-160000.3.1 or higher.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream libcap2 package and not the libcap2 package as distributed by SLES. See How to fix? for SLES:16.0.0 relevant fixed versions and status.

A flaw was found in libcap. A local unprivileged user can exploit a Time-of-check-to-time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition in the cap_set_file() function. This allows an attacker with write access to a parent directory to redirect file capability updates to an attacker-controlled file. By doing so, capabilities can be injected into or stripped from unintended executables, leading to privilege escalation.

References

CVSS Base Scores

version 3.1