CVE-2026-53798
Description
rsync tbefore 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.
Predictions
Heuristic predictions, AS-IS, for prioritization only.
Mitigations
No mitigations published for this CVE yet.
The vendor-content worker queues fetches as references arrive (check back in a few minutes). Or — if you've already worked around this in production — publish your fix to the community-verified tier.
Propose a mitigation on Community Mitigations published via the community go through AI scoring + 2 human reviewers + 7-day silent objection window before landing here withsource_tier=community-verified.
OS impact
Debian Affected 5 releases
| Version | Status | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| trixie | Affected | — |
| sid | Affected | — |
| forky | Affected | — |
| bullseye | Affected | — |
| bookworm | Affected | — |
SUSE Affected 1 release
| Version | Status | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| — | Affected | — |
References
- https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-53798.html
- https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-53798
- https://github.com/RsyncProject/rsync/releases/tag/v3.5.0
- https://github.com/RsyncProject/rsync/security/advisories/GHSA-hx7p-3gvv-pqgv
- https://www.vulncheck.com/advisories/rsync-privilege-confusion-via-name-converter-uid-gid-mapping
CWEs
CWE-704
Community-verified mitigations for this CVE will appear above when contributors publish them.
Verify integrity in audit chain (admin only). AS-IS.