CVE-2026-53803

Published Aug 13, 2026

Last updated 20 days ago

CVSS high 8.5

Overview

Description
rsync before 3.5.0 contains a symlink following vulnerability that allows local attackers to overwrite arbitrary files by placing a symlink at a predictable output path such as --log-file, --write-batch, or daemon-mode log and statistics paths. Attackers can exploit rsync's failure to reject symlinks during ancillary file writes to redirect output to arbitrary filesystem locations, achieving local privilege escalation on installations where rsync runs with elevated privileges such as setuid or privileged daemon configurations.
Source
disclosure@vulncheck.com
NVD status
Analyzed
Products
rsync

Risk scores

CVSS 4.0

Type
Secondary
Base score
8.5
Impact score
-
Exploitability score
-
Vector string
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
Severity
HIGH

CVSS 3.1

Type
Secondary
Base score
7.8
Impact score
5.9
Exploitability score
1.8
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Severity
HIGH

Weaknesses

disclosure@vulncheck.com
CWE-59

Social media

Hype score
Not currently trending

Configurations

Related CVEs

  1. rsync 3.1.0 before 3.5.0 contains an authorization bypass in auth users directive parsing. The auth users parser uses comma-only tokenization when splitting the user list, which fails to correctly handle entries of the form @Group Name where the group name contains a space. The space within the group name causes the parser to split the entry at the space boundary, discarding the deny rule associated with the group. An authenticated user whose username or group membership would be denied by an @Group Name auth users entry can connect to a restricted module because the deny rule is silently discarded during parsing.•CVE-2026-70463
  2. rsync 3.2.5 before 3.5.0 contains a heap out-of-bounds write vulnerability that allows remote unauthenticated attackers to write one attacker-controlled byte past the end of a heap allocation by supplying a crafted files-from entry. Attackers can trigger the vulnerability against a read-only rsync daemon module by providing a files-from entry containing both an interior and trailing backslash, causing the add_implied_include() function to under-count the trailing backslash when sizing the destination buffer.•CVE-2026-70461
  3. rsync 3.0.0 before 3.5.0 contains a null pointer dereference vulnerability in the daemon child process that allows remote attackers to crash the daemon by sending a file list whose first entry is a dot entry not typed as a directory. The daemon dereferences the first file list entry as a directory structure pointer without verifying the entry type, resulting in an invalid or uninitialized pointer dereference that terminates the client connection.•CVE-2026-70459
  4. rsync 3.2.3 before 3.5.0 contains an out-of-bounds write in parse_size_arg() where the return value of snprintf() is used directly as an index into a .bss-segment array without bounds checking. When snprintf truncates the formatted size string, the return value equals the number of characters that would have been written including the truncated portion, and this value may exceed the array length. The subsequent indexed write targets memory outside the intended array bounds, corrupting .bss memory.•CVE-2026-70457
  5. rsync 3.4.2 before 3.5.0 contains a denial of service vulnerability that allows a remote sender to exhaust system resources by specifying the --zt short alias for --compress-threads, which bypasses the refuse options directive's string matching on long option names. Attackers can specify --zt=N with a large value to spawn an unbounded number of Zstandard worker threads on the receiver, exhausting available thread and memory resources.•CVE-2026-70455

References

Sources include official advisories and independent security research.