Symlink Traversal Privilege Escalation via getfattr and setfattr

Summary

attr before version 2.6.0 contains a symlink traversal vulnerability in the getfattr and setfattr utilities that allows local attackers to escalate privileges by replacing a pathname component with a symbolic link during directory hierarchy traversal. Attackers who control a pathname component can redirect getfattr and setfattr operations to arbitrary files by substituting a symlink, leading to local privilege escalation when getfattr or setfattr is invoked by a privileged process over an attacker-controlled path. A flaw was found in the `attr` package. This vulnerability allows a local attacker to perform a symlink traversal attack by replacing a pathname component with a symbolic link - either during directory hierarchy traversal by `getfattr` or during backup restoration by `setfattr`, which reads and resolves full pathnames from backup files. In both cases, when these utilities are executed by a privileged process over a path controlled by the attacker, this can lead to local privilege escalation. Red Hat severity: Moderate — CVSS 6.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N). Weakness: CWE-59. Fixed by RHSA-2026:34889 — update the affected packages (`sudo dnf update`). Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat Hardened Images.