CVE-2026-35368 — coreutils
HIGHCVE-2026-35368 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.8) CWE-426 vulnerability in coreutils. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
uutils coreutils has an Untrusted Search Path
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-35368.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2026-35368 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,636 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
coreutilsReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects crates.io packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
A vulnerability exists in the chroot utility of uutils coreutils when using the --userspec option. The utility resolves the user specification via getpwnam() after entering the chroot but before dropping root privileges. On glibc-based systems, this can trigger the Name Service Switch (NSS) to load shared libraries (e.g., libnss_*.so.2) from the new root directory. If the NEWROOT is writable by an attacker, they can inject a malicious NSS module to execute arbitrary code as root, facilitating a full container escape or privilege escalation.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🦀crates.io | coreutils | all versions | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for coreutils, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of coreutils has shipped for CVE-2026-35368 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2026-35368 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2026-35368. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-35368 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2026-35368 across crates.io dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.