CVE Intelligence
High Integrity

CVE-2026-16460 — Bootc: ostree: bootc/ostree: staged deployments not revalidated against container signature policy before finalization

A flaw was found in bootc and ostree. Already-staged deployments are finalized without revalidating the deployment's container image against the current containers signature policy. Unsigned OS content staged under a prior permissive policy can remain bootable after policy is hardened to reject unsigned images, leading to full host compromise on reboot.

Published Oct 19, 2026 · Updated Oct 19, 2026 · Sources: NIST National Vulnerability Database, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP · CNA: redhat

Who exploits it and how urgent it is

A 0–100 score combining confirmed exploitation, ransomware and APT use, public exploits, EPSS and severity.

No exploitation signal in the sources consulted so far.
How the score was calculated
  • Technical severity (high)+6

The score orders the patch queue; it does not replace your asset context (internet exposure, criticality, compensating controls).

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the sources call it.

Exploitation
Not confirmed
Not in CISA KEV — an absence of record, not proof it is unexploited.
EPSS FIRST
—
No EPSS score.
Affects
Red Hat
Hardened Images
CVSS base
7.4
High · 2 source(s)

CISA SSVC assessment CISA

Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses (SSVC 2.0.3). A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.

Exploitation
None
none · proof-of-concept · active
Automatable
No
can an attacker script the kill-chain steps
Technical impact
Total
partial · total control of the vulnerable component

Remediation

Fixes and mitigations documented by the sources — linked to the original advisory.

No fix documented by the sources we poll. That does not mean none exists: check the vendor advisory.

First 24 hours

Ordered from the record’s own fields — exposure first, because you cannot patch what you have not found. A rule-generated starting point.

  1. Identify exposed assets running the affected vendor/product/version combinations (Red Hat Hardened Images).
  2. No fix documented in the sources: reduce exposure and monitor the vendor advisory.
  3. Search available logs for exploit probes matching the vulnerability class (integrity), errors and authentication anomalies.

Affected scope

Vendor, product and versions as the sources word them.

VendorProductVersionsStatusSource
Red Hat Hardened Images versions not specified by the source Vulnerable CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP

Attack characteristics

The CVSS vector, decoded. It describes the attack, not your exposure to it.

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Every base score collected

Sources score independently and may disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.

ScoreVersionSeverityExpl.ImpactScored by
7.4 CVSS 3.1 High 1.4 5.9 secalert@redhat.com via NIST National Vulnerability Database
7.4 CVSS 3.1 High — — redhat via CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H (score shown at the top: secalert@redhat.com)

Weakness MITRE

Weakness class according to MITRE’s CWE catalog.

CWE-345 · Insufficient Verification of Data Authenticity

Other CVEs with this weakness →

Detection

Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not tested rules.

  • Local/physical vector: focus on endpoint telemetry (EDR) from affected hosts.
endpoint telemetry (EDR)

Timeline

What happened to this CVE, newest first.

  • 2026
  • SSVC assessment updated
    Oct 19, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • Affected products added · red hat/red hat hardened images
    Oct 19, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • Record published
    Oct 19, 2026
  • CVSS changed · 7.4
    Oct 19, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Source status changed · → Received
    Oct 19, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Record created in this database
    Oct 19, 2026 · Alertas do Telegram
  • CVE published
    Oct 19, 2026 · redhat

Source activity

Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.

  • 1× References added · Oct 19, 2026 – Oct 19, 2026
  • 1× Official description updated · Oct 19, 2026 – Oct 19, 2026

References

2 on the record

Elsewhere on this site

Red Hat
every CVE for this vendor
Integrity
same class
CWE-345
other pages naming this weakness

Related CVEs (same products)

  • CVE-2026-16487 Bootc: containers-common: bootc: automatic updates can apply unsigned mutable-tag content under default containers policy 15h
  • CVE-2026-17591 Libarchive: libarchive: use-after-free via aliased mac metadata copy 2d
  • CVE-2026-85231 Libtirpc: libtirpc: denial of service via unbounded memory allocation during rpcsec_gss decoding 3d
  • CVE-2026-85977 Libtirpc: libtirpc: denial of service via unbounded memory allocation during portmapper response decoding 3d
  • CVE-2026-110924 Openssh: openssh: gssapi delegated credentials can be stored after a failed authentication 4d
  • CVE-2026-110927 Openssh: openssh: a compressed payload can expand past the maximum packet size 4d

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

  • No FIRST EPSS score.
  • No fixed version, patch or mitigation documented.
  • No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
  • No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
  • No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.

Answered from this record

Text assembled only from the fields above — no additional claims.

What should defenders know first?

CVE-2026-16460 is "Bootc: ostree: bootc/ostree: staged deployments not revalidated against container signature policy before finalization", rated High. It affects Hardened Images (Red Hat); versions are in the scope table. It is not in CISA KEV, which does not rule out exploitation. CVSS 7.4 describes technical severity. First verify whether exposed or business-critical assets run the affected versions, apply vendor fixes or mitigations, and preserve logs for review.

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