Vulnerability in Rsyncproject Rsync
CVE-2026-53798
rsync before 3.5.0 contains a privilege confusion vulnerability in the name-converter subprocess uid/gid mapping that allows local attackers to cause transferred files to be owned by root by influencing name-converter responses to return empty values. When the name-converter subprocess returns an empty response for a uid or gid lookup, rsync incorrectly interprets it as a successful resolution to uid/gid 0 (root) rather than a lookup failure, and if the name-converter also signals fake super-user status, rsync proceeds with root ownership assignments for transferred files.
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 5.3 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.004 (34.6th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 35th percentile — 34.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.003 · newest: 0.004 · change: +0.002
Affected products
- Rsyncproject Rsync — versions 0, 3.5.0
- Samba Rsync
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- github.com/RsyncProject/rsync/releases/tag/v3.5.0 (release-notes, Product, Release Notes)
- github.com/RsyncProject/rsync/security/advisories/GHSA-hx7p-3gvv-pqgv (vendor-advisory, Vendor Advisory)
- www.vulncheck.com/advisories/rsync-privilege-confusion-via-name-converter-uid-g… (Third Party Advisory, Release Notes, third-party-advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-53798?
- CVE-2026-53798 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Rsyncproject Rsync, classified under Incorrect Type Conversion or Cast. CVSS score: 5.3/10. Published 2026-08-13.
- How severe is CVE-2026-53798?
- Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 5.3 out of 10.