A flaw was found in libcap. A local unprivileged user can exploit a Time-of-check-to-time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition in the `cap_set_file()` function. This allows an attacker with write access to a parent directory to redirect file capability updates to an attacker-controlled file. By doing so, capabilities can be injected into or stripped from unintended executables, leading to privilege escalation.

The remote openSUSE 16 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the openSUSE- SU-2026:20613-1 advisory.

    - CVE-2026-4878: local privilege escalation through file capability injection due to TOCTOU race condition     in       `cap_set_file()` (bsc#1261809).

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote Ubuntu 22.04 LTS / 24.04 LTS / 25.10 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the USN-8193-1 advisory.

    Ali Raza discovered that libcap incorrectly handled file capability updates. A local attacker could     possibly use this issue to inject or strip capabilities into arbitrary executables and escalate     privileges.

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Ubuntu security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote SUSE Linux SLES12 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the SUSE- SU-2026:1433-1 advisory.

    This update for libcap fixes the following issue:

    - CVE-2026-4878: Address a potential TOCTOU race condition in cap_set_file() (bsc#1261809).

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The remote SUSE Linux SLED15 / SLED_SAP15 / SLES15 / SLES_SAP15 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the SUSE-SU-2026:1432-1 advisory.

    This update for libcap fixes the following issue:

    - CVE-2026-4878: Address a potential TOCTOU race condition in cap_set_file() (bsc#1261809).

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the SUSE security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

  - A flaw was found in libcap. A local unprivileged user can exploit a Time-of-check-to-time-of-use (TOCTOU)     race condition in the `cap_set_file()` function. This allows an attacker with write access to a parent     directory to redirect file capability updates to an attacker-controlled file. By doing so, capabilities     can be injected into or stripped from unintended executables, leading to privilege escalation.
    (CVE-2026-4878)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
310086	openSUSE 16 Security Update : libcap (openSUSE-SU-2026:20613-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium
309182	Ubuntu 22.04 LTS / 24.04 LTS / 25.10 : libcap vulnerability (USN-8193-1)	Nessus	Ubuntu Local Security Checks	medium
307423	SUSE SLES12 Security Update : libcap (SUSE-SU-2026:1433-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium
307417	SUSE SLED15 / SLES15 Security Update : libcap (SUSE-SU-2026:1432-1)	Nessus	SuSE Local Security Checks	medium
305106	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-4878	Nessus	Misc.	medium

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2026-4878

high

Tenable Plugins

medium

medium

medium

medium

medium