CVE-2026-61897

Published: Aug 20, 2026Modified: Aug 28, 2026

7.8

Vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Exploitability: 1.8 / Impact: 5.9

Source: security@ubuntu.com (Secondary)

Description

An Ubuntu-specific patch to AccountsService before 23.13.9-8ubuntu7 only partially drops privileges before launching language helper scripts. It changes the effective UID/GID to the target user but leaves the real UID as 0 (root). A shell spawned by a helper script inherits ruid=0 and may reset its effective UID to root, enabling local privilege escalation.

Related CWEs

CWE-273

Improper Check for Dropped Privileges

The product attempts to drop privileges but does not check or incorrectly checks to see if the drop succeeded.

References (2)

https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/accountsservice/+bug/2157985

Source: security@ubuntu.com

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-61897

Source: security@ubuntu.com

Timeline

No history available yet.