Medium [CVE-2026-32791] Escalation of Privilege via Untrusted Search Path

Untrusted search path for some Intel(R) Performance Counter Monitor (Intel(R) PCM) before version tag 202604 within Ring 3: User Applications may allow an escalation of privilege. Unprivileged software adversary with an authenticated user combined with a high complexity attack may enable escalation of privilege.

This result may potentially occur via local access when attack requirements are not present without special internal knowledge and requires passive user interaction.

The potential vulnerability may impact the confidentiality (high), integrity (high) and availability (high) of the vulnerable system, resulting in subsequent system confidentiality (none), integrity (none) and availability (none) impacts. An unprivileged, authenticated local attacker could exploit an untrusted search path vulnerability.

This could lead to an escalation of privilege, allowing the attacker to gain higher access rights. Due to improper path resolution, an authenticated local attacker with low privileges can place a malicious shared library or executable binary in a directory searched by PCM applications.

When a privileged user or service executes PCM, it loads the attacker's binary, leading to local privilege escalation and full compromise of system confidentiality, integrity, and availability. Red Hat severity: Moderate — CVSS 6.7 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).