Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-96281

medium Nessus Plugin ID 349331

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.

- 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.
(CVE-2026-96281)

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

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/cve-2026-96281

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-96281

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-96281

Plugin Details

Severity: Medium

ID: 349331

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_96281.nasl

Version: 1.4

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 9/23/2026

Updated: 9/29/2026

Supported Sensors: Frictionless Assessment AWS, Frictionless Assessment Azure, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Nessus Agent, Agentless Assessment, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.9

Percentile: 58.4

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6

Temporal Score: 5.1

Vector: CVSS2#AV:L/AC:H/Au:S/C:C/I:C/A:C

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-96281

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.2

Temporal Score: 5.7

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:P/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:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:20.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:22.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:26.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:centos:centos:7, cpe:/o:centos:centos:8, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8, cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:flatpak, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:flatpak-builder, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:flatpak-devel, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:flatpak-libs, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:flatpak-selinux, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:flatpak-session-helper, p-cpe:/a:centos:centos:flatpak, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:flatpak, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:flatpak-builder, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:flatpak-devel, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:flatpak-libs, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:flatpak-selinux, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:flatpak-session-helper, p-cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:flatpak

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-2026-96281