High [CVE-2026-53803] Local Privilege Escalation via Symlink Following
This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-53803 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.
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Summary
rsync before 3.5.0 contains a symlink following vulnerability that allows local attackers to overwrite arbitrary files by placing a symlink at a predictable output path such as --log-file, --write-batch, or daemon-mode log and statistics paths.
Attackers can exploit rsync's failure to reject symlinks during ancillary file writes to redirect output to arbitrary filesystem locations, achieving local privilege escalation on installations where rsync runs with elevated privileges such as setuid or privileged daemon configurations.
This Important vulnerability in rsync allows a local attacker to achieve privilege escalation by exploiting a symlink following flaw. In Red Hat environments, the risk is elevated when rsync is configured to run with elevated privileges, such as setuid or in daemon mode, enabling an attacker to overwrite arbitrary files.
The requirement for local access and specific privileged configurations prevents a Critical impact. Red Hat severity: Important — CVSS 7 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).
Weakness: CWE-59. Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9; Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.
Red Hat does not currently list a fixing RHSA for this CVE.
Affected products named by the advisory: Red Hat package: rsync.
- < 3.5.0
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
Mitigation checklist
- Do not run rsync setuid or point output paths (--log-file, --write-batch, or daemon config/log files) to user-writable directories like /tmp. While fs.protected_symlinks=1 prevents simple symlink creation in sticky directories on RHEL 7+, it does not stop parent-component attacks in standard directories. If the rsyncd daemon is unneeded, disable it (systemctl disable --now rsyncd); if required, enforce least-privilege execution and restrict network access to trusted hosts.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 1 hour ago·verify at source
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