Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-4878

medium Nessus Plugin ID 305106

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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.

- 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.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 305106

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_4878.nasl

Version: 1.7

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 4/6/2026

Updated: 4/22/2026

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 7.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.6

Temporal Score: 5.6

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:M/Au:N/C:C/I:P/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-4878

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.7

Temporal Score: 6.1

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:14.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:11.0, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:16.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:libcap2, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:libcap, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:libcap-devel, cpe:/o:centos:centos:8, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:libcap-devel, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:libcap2, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:libcap, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0

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

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-4878

Detections

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