attr before version 2.6.0 contains a symlink traversal vulnerability in the getfattr and setfattr utilities that allows local attackers to escalate privileges by replacing a pathname component with a symbolic link during directory hierarchy traversal. Attackers who control a pathname component can redirect getfattr and setfattr operations to arbitrary files by substituting a symlink, leading to local privilege escalation when getfattr or setfattr is invoked by a privileged process over an attacker-controlled path.

The remote CentOS Linux 9 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the attr-2.6.0-2.el9 build changelog.

  - attr before version 2.6.0 contains a symlink traversal vulnerability in the getfattr and setfattr     utilities that allows local attackers to escalate privileges by replacing a pathname component with a     symbolic link during directory hierarchy traversal. Attackers who control a pathname component can     redirect getfattr and setfattr operations to arbitrary files by substituting a symlink, leading to local     privilege escalation when getfattr or setfattr is invoked by a privileged process over an attacker-     controlled path. (CVE-2026-54371)

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

The remote Fedora 43 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the FEDORA-2026-b85570f8e4 advisory.

    rebase to v2.6.0 to fix CVE-2026-54371

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora 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 Fedora 44 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the FEDORA-2026-daa458d11d advisory.

    rebase to v2.6.0 to fix CVE-2026-54371

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora 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 Fedora 45 host has a package installed that is affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the FEDORA-2026-c7aafa6056 advisory.

    Automatic update for attr-2.6.0-1.fc45.

    ##### **Changelog**

    ```
    * Thu Jul  9 2026 Luk Zaoral <lzaoral@redhat.com> - 2.6.0-1
    - rebase to the latest upstream release (rhbz#2494157)
      - CVE-2026-54371 - Symlink Traversal Privilege Escalation via getfattr (rhbz#2494172)
    - remove a long-overdue workaround for /usr/include/attr/xattr.h

    ```

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the Fedora 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.

  - attr before version 2.6.0 contains a symlink traversal vulnerability in the getfattr and setfattr     utilities that allows local attackers to escalate privileges by replacing a pathname component with a     symbolic link during directory hierarchy traversal. Attackers who control a pathname component can     redirect getfattr and setfattr operations to arbitrary files by substituting a symlink, leading to local     privilege escalation when getfattr or setfattr is invoked by a privileged process over an attacker-     controlled path. (CVE-2026-54371)

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

ID	Name	Product	Family	Severity
326776	CentOS 9 : attr-2.6.0-2.el9	Nessus	CentOS Local Security Checks	high
326486	Fedora 43 : attr (2026-b85570f8e4)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	high
326363	Fedora 44 : attr (2026-daa458d11d)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	high
325965	Fedora 45 : attr (2026-c7aafa6056)	Nessus	Fedora Local Security Checks	high
323820	Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-54371	Nessus	Misc.	high

Detections

Analytics

CVE-2026-54371

high

Tenable Plugins

high

high

high

high

high