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Fencer Vulns
medium 6.2

CVE-2026-96281 json

Flatpak: flatpak: unprivileged active user can bypass anti-downgrade checks for system apps/runtimes

published 2026-09-27 42 d ago modified 2026-11-06 2 d ago also EUVD-2026-88027

cvss
6.2
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 2%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

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.

Patch / fix

  • flatpak Debian 13 1.16.6-1~deb13u2
  • flatpak Debian 14 1.18.1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-96281

  • flatpak SLES for SAP 15 SP5, SLES 15 SP5-LTSS, SLE High Performance Computing 15 SP5-LTSS +1 more 1.16.6-150500.3.21.1
  • flatpak SLES for SAP 15 SP6, SLES 15 SP6-LTSS, SLE Module for Desktop Applications 15 SP7 1.16.6-150600.3.12.1
  • flatpak SLES LTSS Extended Security 12 SP5, SLES 12 SP5-LTSS 1.4.2-3.15.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2026:5127-1SUSE-SU-2026:4944-1SUSE-SU-2026:4610-1

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-96281 updated cvss 6.2

flatpak: flatpak: Unprivileged active user can bypass anti-downgrade checks for system apps/runtimes

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 flatpak, flatpak-libs, flatpak-builder, flatpak 1.18.0-1.el10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 flatpak, flatpak-libs, flatpak-selinux, flatpak 1.18.0-1.el10, flatpak-session-helper Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 flatpak, flatpak-libs, flatpak-selinux, flatpak 1.18.0-1.el10, flatpak-session-helper Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 flatpak 1.18.0-1.el10
    affected: workaround, no fix available “Ensure that Flatpak apps installed system-wide are fully updated before running them.”

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
39 d ago

Exploit prediction

0.12% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 2% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 6.2 CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

Classification

Weakness

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.