Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-24049

high Nessus Plugin ID 295334

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Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

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

- wheel is a command line tool for manipulating Python wheel files, as defined in PEP 427. In versions 0.40.0 through 0.46.1, the unpack function is vulnerable to file permission modification through mishandling of file permissions after extraction. The logic blindly trusts the filename from the archive header for the chmod operation, even though the extraction process itself might have sanitized the path.
Attackers can craft a malicious wheel file that, when unpacked, changes the permissions of critical system files (e.g., /etc/passwd, SSH keys, config files), allowing for Privilege Escalation or arbitrary code execution by modifying now-writable scripts. This issue has been fixed in version 0.46.2. (CVE-2026-24049)

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

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 295334

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_24049.nasl

Version: 1.14

Type: local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 1/22/2026

Updated: 2/9/2026

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.0

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.1

Temporal Score: 6.5

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:H

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:taglib, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:taglib-devel, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:wheel, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:wheel, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:taglib-doc, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:python-pip, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:25.10

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/local_checks_enabled, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 1/22/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-24049

Detections

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