policycoreutils: Relabelling of symbolic links in /tmp and /var/tmp change the context of their target instead
Published Mar 2, 2018
4.4
MEDIUMCVSS 3.0
EPSS 0.39%
Description
Context relabeling of filesystems is vulnerable to symbolic link attack, allowing a local, unprivileged malicious entity to change the SELinux context of an arbitrary file to a context with few restrictions. This only happens when the relabeling process is done, usually when taking SELinux state from disabled to enable (permissive or enforcing). The issue was found in policycoreutils 2.5-11.
Affected products
-
- Version 2.5-11 and newerStatusaffectedConstraints-
- Version
Default status is the baseline for the product, each version can override it (e.g. patched versions marked unaffected).
| Vendor | Product | Default status | Versions | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| SELinux Project | Policycoreutils | n/a |
|
Configuration 1
- 7.0
Configuration 2
- n/a
No data.
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
policycoreutils-0:2.5-22.el7
Fixed · RHSA-2018:0913
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5
policycoreutils
Not affected
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
policycoreutils
Will not fix
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
policycoreutils
Not affected
| Product | Package | State | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | policycoreutils-0:2.5-22.el7 | Fixed | RHSA-2018:0913 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5 | policycoreutils | Not affected | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | policycoreutils | Will not fix | n/a |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | policycoreutils | Not affected | n/a |
No package ranges for this CVE.
Remediation
Red Hat mitigation
Remove any symbolic links from /tmp and /var/tmp directories before relabeling the file system.
Metrics
No CVSS v4.0 score for this CVE.
No CVSS v3.1 score for this CVE.
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
1 other source (Red Hat) ▾
CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N
AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:P/I:P/A:N
This CVE is not in the KEV list.
No CISA SSVC assessment for this CVE yet.
Estimated probability of exploitation in the wild in the next 30 days (FIRST EPSS). As of Oct 1, 2026.
Score over time
2021–2026- EPSS v1
- EPSS v5
- EPSS v2
- EPSS v3
Percentile over time
- EPSS v1
- EPSS v5
- EPSS v2
- EPSS v3
Table of values (9 key points)
Flat stretches are collapsed; showing up to 120 newest points.
| Date | Score | Percentile | Model |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oct 1, 2026 | 0.39% (0.00387) | 30.30th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Sep 20, 2026 | 0.39% (0.00387) | 32.61th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Jul 20, 2024 | 0.04% (0.00044) | 12.95th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| May 25, 2024 | 0.04% (0.00044) | 12.27th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Mar 7, 2023 | 0.04% (0.00044) | 10.26th | v3 (v2023.03.01) |
| Mar 6, 2023 | 0.89% (0.00885) | 27.89th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Feb 4, 2022 | 0.89% (0.00885) | 10.50th | v2 (v2022.01.01) |
| Feb 3, 2022 | 0.62% (0.00624) | 17.80th | v5 (v2026.06.15) |
| Apr 14, 2021 | 0.62% (0.00624) | 0.00th | v1 |
References (5)
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:0913 vendor-advisoryx_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-1063 Vendor Advisory
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1550122 x_refsource_CONFIRMIssue TrackingMitigationVendor Advisory
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-1063
- https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-1063
| Link | Providers | Tags |
|---|---|---|
| https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2018:0913 | vendor-advisoryx_refsource_REDHAT | |
| https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2018-1063 | Vendor Advisory | |
| https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1550122 | x_refsource_CONFIRMIssue TrackingMitigationVendor Advisory | |
| https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2018-1063 | ||
| https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2018-1063 |
Change history (0)
No recorded changes yet.