CVE-2026-16552

✕ Withdrawn — historical dataMEDIUMPre-NVD 6.3
6.3CVSS
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: —CVSS: 6.3Exploit: None knownExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

A flaw was found in systemd-tmpfiles. When processing a tmpfiles.d configuration entry that writes to a file, systemd-tmpfiles can follow a symbolic link placed by an unprivileged local user, and an existing safety check does not detect this specific case because it always treats transitions away from the root user as safe. On systems where a tmpfiles.d configuration targets a path an unprivileged user can influence, this could allow that user to redirect a privileged systemd-tmpfiles write to a file of their choosing, though the content written remains determined by the existing configuration rather than by the unprivileged user. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to integrity.

CVSS v3
6.3
EchelonGraph score
Not yet assessedThis CVE record was withdrawn by its numbering authority, so there is no vulnerability to rate.
EG Score
—
EG Risk
—
EPSS PROB
—
EPSS %ILE
—
KEV
Not listed

Published

July 22, 2026

Last Modified

July 22, 2026

Advisory Details (4)

Auto-updated Jul 22, 2026
Patch available. Sources: redhat.
generic

systemd/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c at b9ef5951f8f9e156479494fdb9ca6274cb3d3c53 · systemd/systemd · GitHub

https://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/b9ef5951f8f9e156479494fdb9ca6274cb3d3c53/src/tmpfiles/tmpfiles.c
generic

systemd/src/basic/chase.c at b9ef5951f8f9e156479494fdb9ca6274cb3d3c53 · systemd/systemd · GitHub

https://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/b9ef5951f8f9e156479494fdb9ca6274cb3d3c53/src/basic/chase.c
redhat

2506073 – (CVE-2026-16552) CVE-2026-16552 systemd: systemd-tmpfiles symlink-redirected arbitrary file overwrite via a CHASE_SAFE root-to-unprivileged ownership transition bypass

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2506073
redhat Patch Available

cve-details

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-16552

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-16552(1)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 2× in last 7d / 11× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-08-30 00:53 UTCGHSA enrichment
  2. 2026-08-26 13:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
  3. 2026-08-23 10:31 UTCGHSA enrichment
  4. 2026-08-20 07:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  5. 2026-08-17 05:03 UTCGHSA enrichment
  6. 2026-08-14 02:18 UTCGHSA enrichment
  7. 2026-08-10 23:34 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-08-07 20:50 UTCGHSA enrichment
  9. 2026-08-04 18:06 UTCGHSA enrichment
  10. 2026-08-01 15:17 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-08-01 15:17 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-07-29 12:33 UTCEG score recompute
  13. 2026-07-29 12:33 UTCGHSA enrichment
  14. 2026-07-26 09:48 UTCEG score recompute▼ 6.30
  15. 2026-07-26 09:48 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-07-23 03:06 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-07-22 18:55 UTCEG score recompute
  18. 2026-07-22 18:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-07-22 17:01 UTCEG score recompute
  20. 2026-07-22 16:01 UTCEG score recompute
  21. 2026-07-22 16:00 UTCMITRE cvelistV5first tracked

Related CVEs(same CWE)

Frequently asked(4)

What is CVE-2026-16552?
CVE-2026-16552 is a medium vulnerability published on July 22, 2026. A flaw was found in systemd-tmpfiles. When processing a tmpfiles.d configuration entry that writes to a file, systemd-tmpfiles can follow a symbolic link placed by an unprivileged local user, and an existing safety check does not detect this specific case because it always treats transitions away…
When was CVE-2026-16552 disclosed?
CVE-2026-16552 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on July 22, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-16552?
CVE-2026-16552 has a CVSS v3 base score of 6.3 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-16552?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2026-16552, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2026-16552

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