Vulnerability · Published Apr 22, 2026 · Assigned by canonical
CVE-2026-35372uutils coreutils ln Security Bypass via Improper Handling of the --no-dereference Flag
Medium 5.0
In plain English
A medium-severity security flaw in coreutils from Uutils. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.1% (higher than 3% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
A logic error in the ln utility of uutils coreutils allows the utility to dereference a symbolic link target even when the --no-dereference (or -n) flag is explicitly provided. The implementation previously only honored the "no-dereference" intent if the --force (overwrite) mode was also enabled. This flaw causes ln to follow a symbolic link that points to a directory and create new links inside that target directory instead of treating the symbolic link itself as the destination. In environments where a privileged user or system script uses ln -n to update a symlink, a local attacker could manipulate existing symbolic links to redirect file creation into sensitive directories, potentially leading to unauthorized file creation or system misconfiguration.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:12 | rust-coreutils | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-35372 |
| Debian:13 | rust-coreutils | no fix listed | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-35372 |
| Debian:14 | rust-coreutils | 0.8.0-1 | DEBIAN-CVE-2026-35372 |
| Ubuntu:24.04:LTS | rust-coreutils | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-35372 |
| Ubuntu:25.10 | rust-coreutils | no fix listed | UBUNTU-CVE-2026-35372 |
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-61 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
References
- https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/pull/11253 issue-tracking, patch
- https://github.com/uutils/coreutils/releases/tag/0.8.0 vendor-advisory