CyberRota Analysis
AI-GeneratedFlatpak versions prior to 1.18.1 are vulnerable to a security flaw that allows malicious sandboxed applications to gain arbitrary read and write access to host files, potentially leading to arbitrary code execution. This vulnerability arises from inadequate symlink protection, enabling attackers to manipulate app data directories and redirect them to unauthorized locations on the host. Organizations using Flatpak should prioritize patching to mitigate the risk of exploitation, particularly those that deploy sandboxed applications in sensitive environments.
Public Exploit Signal
A public exploit, PoC, GitHub repository or Metasploit reference was detected for this CVE.
Note: these links are listed for security research and verification purposes only.
Original NVD Description
In Flatpak before 1.18.1, a malicious sandboxed app can obtain arbitrary read and write access to files on the host, which can be escalated to arbitrary code execution on the host, a different vulnerability than CVE-2026-76925. Flatpak creates a few app data directories (e.g., /var/cache, /var/data, /var/config, and /var/tmp) in every sandbox on every app launch where, in some cases, components of the path are attacker-controlled. Missing symlink protection can redirect the directories. Some of these directories are bind-mounted by Flatpak by passing the path (e.g., /home/user/.var/app/APP_ID/cache/tmp), which contains attacker-controlled directories (tmp) to bwrap --bind SRC DST. bwrap passes the path on to the kernel, which then follows symlinks. A malicious symlink can point to arbitrary locations on the host and it will become mounted inside the sandbox.