Medium
Security advisory
A symbolic link issue was found in rpm. It occurs when rpm sets the desired permissions and credentials after installing a file. A local unprivileged user could use this flaw to exchange the original file with a symbolic link to a security-critical file and escalate their privileges on the system. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2021-35938
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 31 Oct 2026, 12:45 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
A symbolic link issue was found in rpm. It occurs when rpm sets the desired permissions and credentials after installing a file. A local unprivileged user could use this flaw to exchange the original file with a symbolic link to a security-critical file and escalate their privileges on the system. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.
osv:CVE-2021-35938
Complete source record
{
"id": "5ab355fcbd01155438a981624c8bb3cc040f7fdfc2a06673875dbbecbf44e2e9",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2021-35938",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "CVE-2021-35938",
"summary": "A symbolic link issue was found in rpm. It occurs when rpm sets the desired permissions and credentials after installing a file. A local unprivileged user could use this flaw to exchange the original file with a symbolic link to a security-critical file and escalate their privileges on the system. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality and integrity as well as system availability.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2021-35938",
"products": [],
"severity": "medium",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2021-35938",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2021-35938"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"repo": "https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "ea0d77c52e176e2876fdb1d07ad41e9e2635a93e"
},
{
"fixed": "25a435e90844ea98fe5eb7bef22c1aecf3a9c033"
}
],
"database_specific": {
"extracted_events": [
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:rpm:rpm:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"fixed": "4.18.0"
}
],
"source": "CPE_RANGE"
},
{
"range": [
{
"fixed": "25a435e90844ea98fe5eb7bef22c1aecf3a9c033"
}
],
"source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
}
]
}
}
],
"versions": [
"rpm-4.17.0-alpha",
"rpm-4.16.0-alpha",
"rpm-4.15.0-alpha",
"rpm-4.13.0-alpha",
"rpm-4.12.0-alpha",
"rpm-4.11.0-alpha",
"rpm-4.8.0-beta1",
"rpm-4.4.2.1-rc2",
"rpm-4.4.2.1-rc1",
"rpm-4.4.2-release",
"rpm-4.4.1-release",
"rpm-4.4-release"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2021-35938.json",
"vanir_signatures": [
{
"id": "CVE-2021-35938-6ff8734b",
"digest": {
"threshold": 0.9,
"line_hashes": [
"280623155716057075973965713759273863140",
"67026450021903754845164842287235129457",
"158411457487267255824690252833708700168"
]
},
"source": "https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/commit/25a435e90844ea98fe5eb7bef22c1aecf3a9c033",
"target": {
"file": "lib/fsm.c"
},
"deprecated": false,
"signature_type": "Line",
"signature_version": "v1"
},
{
"id": "CVE-2021-35938-c3afe85b",
"digest": {
"length": 5307,
"function_hash": "106619841970814527190268285391749306210"
},
"source": "https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/commit/25a435e90844ea98fe5eb7bef22c1aecf3a9c033",
"target": {
"file": "lib/fsm.c",
"function": "rpmPackageFilesInstall"
},
"deprecated": false,
"signature_type": "Function",
"signature_version": "v1"
}
],
"vanir_signatures_modified": "2026-10-20T14:25:24Z"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-20T14:25:24.372031899Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2021-35938",
"https://rpm.org/wiki/Releases/4.18.0",
"https://security.gentoo.org/glsa/202210-22",
"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1964114",
"https://bugzilla.suse.com/show_bug.cgi?id=1157880",
"https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/commit/25a435e90844ea98fe5eb7bef22c1aecf3a9c033",
"https://github.com/rpm-software-management/rpm/pull/1919"
],
"provider_metadata": {
"unresolved_ranges": [
{
"cpes": [
"cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:34:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"
],
"vendor_product": "fedoraproject:fedora",
"extracted_events": [
{
"range": [
{
"introduced": "34"
},
{
"last_affected": "34"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
},
{
"cpes": [
"cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"cpe:2.3:o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*"
],
"vendor_product": "redhat:enterprise_linux",
"extracted_events": [
{
"range": [
{
"introduced": "7.0"
},
{
"last_affected": "7.0"
},
{
"introduced": "8.0"
},
{
"last_affected": "8.0"
},
{
"introduced": "9.0"
},
{
"last_affected": "9.0"
}
],
"source": "CPE_STRING"
}
]
}
]
}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2021-35938",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 388980,
"published_at": "2022-08-25T20:15:09.307+00:00"
}