High severity · published Jul 21, 2026
CVE-2026-8933
snap-confine Local Privilege Escalation via Capabilities Misconfiguration or Flaw in Execution Environment Setup
7.8
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
A local privilege escalation vulnerability exists in snap-confine, a set-capabilities core component used internally by Canonical snapd to construct the secure execution environment for snap applications. This vulnerability uniquely affects versions of snap-confine configured with set-capabilities (rather than standard set-uid-root installations). Due to a flaw in how privilege boundaries or security sandboxes are initialized when the binary runs under limited ambient capabilities, a local, unprivileged attacker can exploit this behavior to bypass intended restrictions and execute arbitrary code. Successful exploitation allows the local user to elevate their privileges to full root authority.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 7% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
U2
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS · Canonical
All versions, or not specified · source: vendor
U2
Ubuntu 24.04 LTS · Canonical
All versions, or not specified · source: vendor
U2
Ubuntu 26.04 LTS · Canonical
All versions, or not specified · source: vendor
In the news
VulnerabilityHigh
CVE-2026-8933: Ubuntu security flaw breaks Snap sandbox protections
Qualys disclosed CVE-2026-8933, a high-severity Ubuntu flaw that lets local attackers gain root privileges through a race condition in snap-confine. Qualys has disclosed a high-severity local privilege escalation vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2026-8933 (CVSS score of 7.8), affecting default installations of Ubuntu Desktop 24.04, 25.10, and 26.04. The flaw stems from a race condition introduced during a […]
Jul 22, 2026·Security Affairs
VulnerabilityHigh
Ubuntu snap-confine Flaw Could Give Local Users Root on Default Desktop Installs
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new local privilege escalation (LPE) vulnerability in snap-confine that an unprivileged user can trigger to obtain root access and gain complete control of a target environment. The high-severity flaw, tracked as CVE-2026-8933 (CVSS score: 7.8), impacts default installations of Ubuntu Desktop 24.04, 25.10, and 26.04. The disclosure comes as
Jul 22, 2026·The Hacker News
VulnerabilityHigh
CVE-2026-8933: Local Privilege Escalation in Set-Capabilities snap-confine
The Qualys Threat Research Unit (TRU) has identified a Local Privilege Escalation (LPE) vulnerability in snap-confine (CVE-2026-8933). This flaw allows an unprivileged local user to gain full root access on default installations of Ubuntu Desktop 24.04, 25.10, and 26.04. The issue stems from a security hardening change that inadvertently introduced a race condition during sandbox […]
Jul 21, 2026·Qualys Blog
Affected product
U2
Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Canonical
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