Vulnerability · Published Oct 31, 2026 · Assigned by fedora
CVE-2026-118598epiphany: clipboard/website-data permission prompt incorrectly grants camera and microphone access
Medium 6.5
In plain English
A medium-severity incorrect authorization in Epiphany from GNOME. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.5% (higher than 41% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
A logic error in Epiphany's site permission handling can cause camera and microphone access to be granted when the user only approves a different permission. In src/ephy-window.c, set_permission() stores the user's Allow/Deny choice after a WebKit permission dialog. Types CLIPBOARD and WEBSITE_DATA_ACCESS are not stored by ephy_permission_is_stored_by_permissions_manager(), so control fell into an else-if that was written as: } else if (EPHY_PERMISSION_TYPE_ACCESS_WEBCAM_AND_MICROPHONE) { Because that expression is a non-zero enum constant, the branch always ran for those types and wrote EPHY_PERMISSION_PERMIT for both ACCESS_WEBCAM and ACCESS_MICROPHONE for the site origin. The user only saw a Clipboard or Website Data Access dialog. A malicious site that obtains approval for clipboard or third-party storage access can afterwards use getUserMedia without a further camera/microphone prompt, exposing audiovisual confidentiality. Requirements: the victim must visit a malicious page and click Allow on a clipboard or website-data-access prompt. Affected: Epiphany >= 45.0 (bug present at least through 51.x). Fixed: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/epiphany/-/merge_requests/2249 (commit 480c3648). Upstream: https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/epiphany/-/work_items/2976 Reporter acknowledgment: Fernando Munoz
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | epiphany-browser | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-118598 |
| Debian:13 | epiphany-browser | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-118598 |
| Debian:14 | epiphany-browser | 51.2-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-118598 |
| Ubuntu:22.04:LTS | epiphany-browser | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-118598 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | epiphany-browser | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-118598 |
| Ubuntu:26.04:LTS | epiphany-browser | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-118598 |
| Ubuntu:26.10 | epiphany-browser | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-118598 |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-863 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
References
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-118598 vdb-entry, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2562956 issue-tracking, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/epiphany/-/work_items/2976
- https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/epiphany/-/merge_requests/2249