4.7 MEDIUM
- CVSS version: 3.1
- Attack vector (AV): LOCAL
- Attack complexity (AC): HIGH
- Privileges required (PR): LOW
- User interaction (UI): NONE
- Scope (S): UNCHANGED
- Confidentiality impact (C): HIGH
- Integrity impact (I): NONE
- Availability impact (A): NONE
util-linux: TOCTOU Race Condition in util-linux mount(8) - Loop Device Setup
util-linux is a random collection of Linux utilities. Prior to version 2.41.4, a TOCTOU (Time-of-Check-Time-of-Use) vulnerability has been identified in the SUID binary /usr/bin/mount from util-linux. The mount binary, when setting up loop devices, validates the source file path with user privileges via fork() + setuid() + realpath(), but subsequently re-canonicalizes and opens it with root privileges (euid=0) without verifying that the path has not been replaced between both operations. Neither O_NOFOLLOW, nor inode comparison, nor post-open fstat() are employed. This allows a local unprivileged user to replace the source file with a symlink pointing to any root-owned file or device during the race window, causing the SUID binary to open and mount it as root. Exploitation requires an /etc/fstab entry with user,loop options whose path points to a directory where the attacker has write permission, and that /usr/bin/mount has the SUID bit set (the default configuration on virtually all Linux distributions). The impact is unauthorized read access to root-protected files and block devices, including backup images, disk volumes, and any file containing a valid filesystem. This issue has been patched in version 2.41.4.
References
Affected products
- ==< 2.41.4
Matching in nixpkgs
pkgs.more
None
pkgs.wall
None
pkgs.eject
None
pkgs.mount
None
pkgs.logger
None
pkgs.umount
None
pkgs.hexdump
None
pkgs.libuuid
Set of system utilities for Linux
pkgs.utillinux
Set of system utilities for Linux
pkgs.util-linux
Set of system utilities for Linux
pkgs.libsmartcols
Set of system utilities for Linux
pkgs.unixtools.col
None
pkgs.unixtools.fsck
None
pkgs.unixtools.more
None
pkgs.unixtools.wall
None
pkgs.unixtools.eject
None
pkgs.unixtools.fdisk
None
pkgs.unixtools.mount
None
pkgs.unixtools.write
None
pkgs.unixtools.column
None
pkgs.unixtools.getopt
None
pkgs.unixtools.logger
None
pkgs.unixtools.script
None
pkgs.unixtools.umount
None
pkgs.unixtools.hexdump
None
pkgs.unixtools.whereis
None
pkgs.util-linuxMinimal
Set of system utilities for Linux
pkgs.uutils-util-linux
Rust reimplementation of the util-linux project
-
nixos-unstable 0.0.1-unstable-2026-03-13
- nixpkgs-unstable 0.0.1-unstable-2026-03-13
- nixos-unstable-small 0.0.1-unstable-2026-03-13
pkgs.unixtools.util-linux
None
-
nixos-unstable 1003.1-2008
- nixpkgs-unstable 1003.1-2008
- nixos-unstable-small 1003.1-2008
-
nixos-25.11 1003.1-2008
- nixos-25.11-small 1003.1-2008
- nixpkgs-25.11-darwin 1003.1-2008
Package maintainers
-
@numinit Morgan Jones <me+nixpkgs@numin.it>
-
@kyehn kyehn