# CVE-2026-96281 — Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10

> As of 2026-09-27, CVE-2026-96281 is a MEDIUM-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, CVSS v3.1 6.2. No Threadlinqs-tracked threat campaign has been attributed to CVE-2026-96281 as of 2026-09-27; the identifier is re-checked against the Threadlinqs threat corpus on every daily ingest.

**Last updated:** 2026-09-27

## What is CVE-2026-96281?

On a multi-user system, a user with an active local login session could downgrade a system-wide Flatpak app to an older version by removing the app's remote ref via the unprivileged system-helper RemoveLocalRef method, causing the anti-downgrade check to fail to find a reference date. A malicious local user could use this to expose other users of the same system to an app version with unfixed vulnerabilities.

The record classifies CVE-2026-96281 under weakness class [CWE-284](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cwe/CWE-284). Its CVSS v3 base vector states that the flaw requires physical access to the device, needs low-privilege credentials, needs a user to take an action first, and has high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability. 4 affected-product entries are recorded, across 1 vendor, listed below. The identifier was first published 8 days ago.

## Severity and exploitation probability

- **CVSS v3.1 base score:** 6.2 — MEDIUM (`CVSS:3.1/AV:P/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **CISA KEV:** Not listed in the CISA Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
- **Threadlinqs priority:** 3.1/10 — a Threadlinqs composite of the CVSS base score, the EPSS percentile and public exploit availability
- **Published:** 2026-09-27

## Is CVE-2026-96281 being exploited?

It currently carries a trending score of 30 in the Threadlinqs vulnerability feed.

## Affected products and versions

- [Red Hat](https://intel.threadlinqs.com/vendors/red-hat): Enterprise Linux 10, Enterprise Linux 7, Enterprise Linux 8, Enterprise Linux 9

## How to fix CVE-2026-96281

No vendor patch reference has been recorded for CVE-2026-96281 in the tracked sources. Follow the references below for a fix, and treat the products listed above as exposed until the vendor states otherwise.

## Threat activity tracking CVE-2026-96281

No threat campaign in the Threadlinqs corpus currently references CVE-2026-96281, in its CVE list or as an indicator. The linkage is recomputed from the live corpus on every daily ingest, so this section fills in as soon as a tracked campaign cites the identifier.

## Sources

Enriched from CVE.org. Last verified by Threadlinqs on 2026-09-28.

**Third-party advisory**

- [access.redhat.com — vdb entry](https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-96281)
- [bugzilla.redhat.com — issue tracking](https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2539421)

**Other references**

- [github.com](https://github.com/flatpak/flatpak/security/advisories/GHSA-q4gr-vc25-57m5)

Canonical: https://intel.threadlinqs.com/cve/CVE-2026-96281
Full detection coverage and IOCs for threats exploiting CVE-2026-96281 via the Threadlinqs MCP server (Purple tier): https://intel.threadlinqs.com/mcp