CVE-2026-96281Flatpak: flatpak: unprivileged active user can bypass anti-downgrade checks for system apps/runtimes
- 6.2MediumCVSS base score
- 0.12%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 98% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
On a multi-user system, a user with an active local login session could downgrade a system-wide Flatpak app to an older version by removing the app's remote ref via the unprivileged system-helper RemoveLocalRef method, causing the anti-downgrade check to fail to find a reference date. A malicious local user could use this to expose other users of the same system to an app version with unfixed vulnerabilities.
Timeline
ID reserved
By redhat
- 5 days later
· 5 days later
Published
- 40 days later
· 40 days later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| redhatCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Medium6.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Awaiting Analysis | 3.1 | Medium6.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.12% · top 98% of all CVEs (15 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Medium 6.2.
Affected products
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
All versions: affected
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
All versions: affected
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
All versions: affected
Red Hat · Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
All versions: affected
What to do
Workaround: Ensure that Flatpak apps installed system-wide are fully updated before running them.
References
References3
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-96281 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2539421 (opens in a new tab)issue-trackingx_refsource_REDHAT
- https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/security/advisories/GHSA-q4gr-vc25-57m5 (opens in a new tab)
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-88027 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-96281)Record last updated .