CVE-2026-53803
HighCVSS 7.8Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk3th percentile - higher than 3% of all known CVEs
Summary
rsync before 3.5.0 contains a symlink following vulnerability that allows local attackers to overwrite arbitrary files by placing a symlink at a predictable output path such as --log-file, --write-batch, or daemon-mode log and statistics paths. Attackers can exploit rsync's failure to reject symlinks during ancillary file writes to redirect output to arbitrary filesystem locations, achieving local privilege escalation on installations where rsync runs with elevated privileges such as setuid or privileged daemon configurations.
Risk Assessment
The risk includes the possibility of overwriting arbitrary files by a local attacker, which could lead to privilege escalation or system integrity compromise.
Recommendation
It is recommended to immediately upgrade rsync to version 3.5.0 or later and restrict the privileges of the rsync process to minimize risk.
Original NVD description (English source)
rsync before 3.5.0 contains a symlink following vulnerability that allows local attackers to overwrite arbitrary files by placing a symlink at a predictable output path such as --log-file, --write-batch, or daemon-mode log and statistics paths. Attackers can exploit rsync's failure to reject symlinks during ancillary file writes to redirect output to arbitrary filesystem locations, achieving local privilege escalation on installations where rsync runs with elevated privileges such as setuid or privileged daemon configurations.