Vulnerability Intelligence Report
APT RCE via hard link reuse
CVE-2026-109518
On Debian, Ubuntu, and derivative Linux distributions, an on-path attacker who can manipulate the HTTP traffic (including a malicious mirror or proxy) between an APT client and an archive server triggered by a package install can trick the client into installing an attacker-controlled unverified package and achieve remote code execution with root privileges. The vulnerability is caused by the reuse of hard links and requires the client to follow redirects and retry the download of package files. It requires the client to have a non-zero Acquire::Retries configuration setting; the value 3 is the default starting with Debian 12 (bookworm) and Ubuntu 22.04 LTS (Jammy Jellyfish), so older releases are unaffected in a default configuration
No Active Exploit Signals
CVSS Base Score
7.7
HIGH
Executive Threat Verdict
Evaluating...
Evaluating Threat Landscape...
Assessing known weaponization, exploitation telemetry, and federal advisories.
Attack Surface
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Authentication
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Weaponization
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SSVC Action
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Weaknesses (CWE)
Affected Products & Versions
| Vendor | Product | Affected Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Debian | APT | 0 < 1.2.36 (affected), 1.4.0 < 1.4.12 (affected), 1.6.0 < 1.6.19 (affected), 1.8.0 < 1.8.2.4 (affected), 1.8.3 <= 1.8.5 (affected), 2.0.0 < 2.0.12 (affected), 2.2.0 < 2.2.5 (affected), 2.4.0 < 2.4.15 (affected), 2.6.0 < 2.6.2 (affected), 2.8.0 < 2.8.4 (affected), 3.0.0 < 3.0.4 (affected), 3.2.0 < 3.2.1 (affected), 3.3.0 < 3.3.6 (affected) |
| Ubuntu | APT | 0 < 1.0.1ubuntu2.24+esm4 (affected), 1.2.0 < 1.2.36+esm1 (affected), 1.6.0 < 1.6.19+esm1 (affected), 2.0.0 < 2.0.12+esm1 (affected), 2.4.0 < 2.4.15ubuntu0.1 (affected), 2.8.0 < 2.8.4ubuntu0.1 (affected), 3.2.0 < 3.2.1ubuntu0.1 (affected), 3.3.0 < 3.3.3ubuntu0.1 (affected) |
References & Technical Advisories
No reference links found.
Threat Intelligence Signals
GitHub Advisory
Identity & Timeline
| Status | PUBLISHED |
| Assigning Authority | Canonical Ltd. · Vendor · UK |
| Reserved | 2026-10-12T18:44:13 |
| Published | 2026-11-04T15:49:02 |
| Last Updated | 2026-11-05T00:12:15 |
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