Auth bypass in Openzfs
CVE-2026-79619
On Linux, several OpenZFS ioctl authorization checks accept a capability held only within a user-created, unprivileged namespace as equivalent to real host privilege, allowing an unprivileged local user to perform operations that should require root. Affected operations include pool-administrative operations (eg create, import, destroy), pool event log access (zpool events) and fault injection (zinject). Exploiting the problem requires only that the local user is permitted to open /dev/zfs (governed by local device permissions) and that the kernel permits unprivileged user namespace creation. No prior access to the target pool or its underlying devices is needed.
Vulnerability class: Broken Access Control
Published · last modified .
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.002 (8.7th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 9th percentile — 8.7% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.001 · newest: 0.002 · change: +0.001
Affected products
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- github.com/openzfs/zfs/pull/18959 (patch)
- github.com/advisories/GHSA-mhf5-q8gw-qg9v (vendor-advisory)
- github.com/openzfs/zfs/releases/tag/zfs-2.4.4 (product)
- github.com/openzfs/zfs/releases/tag/zfs-2.3.9 (product)
- github.com/openzfs/zfs/releases/tag/zfs-2.2.11 (product)
- seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2026/Aug/40 (mailing-list)