CVE 2026 97023

A path traversal vulnerability in Flatpak's handling of the export/bin directory during app deployment allows a malicious Flatpak app to cause deletion of attacker-chosen files outside the deployment directory when the app is installed or upgraded. In system-wide installations, the deletion is performed as root.

Red Hat estimates the CVSSv3.1 vector of CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H from provided CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:P/VC:N/VI:L/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N. The attack requires user interaction and does not cross a security boundary, meaning the scope is unchanged.

Avoid installing Flatpak apps from non-trusted publishers, particularly in system-wide deployments.

CWE-61 : UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following

Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details

Info alert: Important note

CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications ).

The following CVSS metrics and score provided are preliminary and subject to review.

CVSS v3 Score Breakdown

Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H

cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H

Understanding the Weakness (CWE)

Confidentiality,Integrity

Technical Impact: Read Files or Directories; Modify Files or Directories

Red Hat would like to thank Sebastian Wick for reporting this issue.

Frequently Asked Questions

"Under investigation" doesn't necessarily mean that the product is affected by this vulnerability. It only means that our Analysis Team is still working on determining whether the product is affected and how it is affected.

The term 'Affected' means that our Analysis team has determined that this product, such as Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 or OpenShift Container Platform 4, is affected by this vulnerability and a fix may be released to address this issue in the near future. This includes all minor releases of this product unless noted otherwise in the Statement text.

Upgrade to a supported product version that includes a fix for this vulnerability (recommended).

Apply a mitigation (if one exists).

Customers with the Technical Account Manager (TAM) RHEL Security Select Add-on can review this CVE directly with their TAM.

Apply a mitigation (if one exists).

Red Hat Engineering focuses on addressing high-priority issues based on the impact and product lifecycle expectations. Therefore, lower-priority issues will not receive immediate fixes.

Customers with the technical account manager (TAM) RHEL Security Select Add-on can review this CVE directly with their TAM.

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