AlmaLinux 9.6 [TuxCare] Security Update: PackageKit / PackageKit-command-not-found / PackageKit-cron / etc (ALMALINUX9.6:CLSA-2026:1778773906)

high Nessus Plugin ID 359816

Synopsis

The AlmaLinux host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The AlmaLinux 9.6 host has packages installed that are affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the TuxCare ALMALINUX9.6:CLSA-2026:1778773906 advisory.

- PackageKit is a a D-Bus abstraction layer that allows the user to manage packages in a secure way using a cross-distro, cross-architecture API. PackageKit between and including versions 1.0.2 and 1.3.4 is vulnerable to a time-of-check time-of-use (TOCTOU) race condition on transaction flags that allows unprivileged users to install packages as root and thus leads to a local privilege escalation. This is patched in version 1.3.5. A local unprivileged user can install arbitrary RPM packages as root, including executing RPM scriptlets, without authentication. The vulnerability is a TOCTOU race condition on `transaction->cached_transaction_flags` combined with a silent state-machine guard that discards illegal backward transitions while leaving corrupted flags in place. Three bugs exist in `src/pk-transaction.c`:
1. Unconditional flag overwrite (line 4036): `InstallFiles()` writes caller-supplied flags to `transaction->cached_transaction_flags` without checking whether the transaction has already been authorized/started. A second call blindly overwrites the flags even while the transaction is RUNNING. 2.
Silent state-transition rejection (lines 873882): `pk_transaction_set_state()` silently discards backward state transitions (e.g. `RUNNING` `WAITING_FOR_AUTH`) but the flag overwrite at step 1 already happened.
The transaction continues running with corrupted flags. 3. Late flag read at execution time (lines 22732277): The scheduler's idle callback reads cached_transaction_flags at dispatch time, not at authorization time. If flags were overwritten between authorization and execution, the backend sees the attacker's flags. (CVE-2026-41651)

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

Solution

Update the affected packages based on the guidance in TuxCare advisory ALMALINUX9.6:CLSA-2026:1778773906.

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 359816

File Name: tuxcare_alma_linux_9.6_CLSA-2026-1778773906.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Family: Alma Linux Local Security Checks

Published: 10/1/2026

Updated: 10/1/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Continuous Assessment, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: High

Score: 8

Percentile: 99.68

Vendor

Vendor Severity: Important

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.8

Temporal Score: 5.3

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-41651

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.8

Temporal Score: 7.9

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

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:P/RL:O/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, Host/AlmaLinux/release, Host/AlmaLinux/rpm-list, Host/OS/extended-third-party

Exploit Available: true

Exploit Ease: Exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 5/14/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 4/22/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-41651

CLSA: 2026:1778773906

Detections

Analytics