CVE Intelligence
High Integrity

CVE-2026-16487 — Bootc: containers-common: bootc: automatic updates can apply unsigned mutable-tag content under default containers policy

A flaw was found in bootc when operating with the default containers signature policy. Automatic or manual upgrades of a mutable image tag may apply unsigned content for registries that fall through to insecureAcceptAnything, allowing an attacker who can update that tag to execute arbitrary OS content as the host root filesystem 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 and 3 more
CVSS base
8.1
High · 2 source(s)

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, Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8…).
  2. The attack is network-based and needs no privileges: restrict exposure (ACLs, VPN, WAF) until patched.
  3. No fix documented in the sources: reduce exposure and monitor the vendor advisory.
  4. 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
Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 versions not specified by the source Vulnerable CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 versions not specified by the source Vulnerable CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 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
Network
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
8.1 CVSS 3.1 High 2.2 5.9 secalert@redhat.com via NIST National Vulnerability Database
8.1 CVSS 3.1 High — — redhat via CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/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.

  • Prioritize edge telemetry for the network-reachable component (proxy, WAF, IDS/IPS).
web/proxy/WAF logsnetwork IDS/IPS

Timeline

What happened to this CVE, newest first.

  • 2026
  • Affected products added · red hat/red hat enterprise linux 10, red hat/red hat enterprise linux 8, red hat/red hat enterprise linux 9, red hat/red
    Oct 19, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • Record published
    Oct 19, 2026
  • CVSS changed · 8.1
    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 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • CVE published
    Oct 19, 2026 · redhat

Source activity

Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.

  • 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-2026-112214 Gstreamer1-plugins-ugly-free: gstreamer1-plugins-ugly-free: unbounded memory allocation in asfdemux simple index parser 6h
  • CVE-2026-112210 Rhc: rhc: local privilege escalation via symlink following in rhc-canonical-facts.service 7h
  • CVE-2026-16460 Bootc: ostree: bootc/ostree: staged deployments not revalidated against container signature policy before finalization 12h
  • CVE-2026-89085 Parted: parted: heap-based buffer overflow via crafted fat32 filesystem image 2d
  • CVE-2026-89088 Parted: parted: denial of service via heap buffer overflow during fat16 resize 2d
  • CVE-2026-89096 Nfs-utils: nfs-utils: denial of service via memory leak in rpc.statd 2d

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 CISA SSVC assessment.
  • 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-2026-16487 is "Bootc: containers-common: bootc: automatic updates can apply unsigned mutable-tag content under default containers policy", 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 8.1 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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