High [CVE-2026-54552] Incomplete privilege drop allows child processes to retain privileged group access.
This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-54552 affecting Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4.
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Summary
sh provides Python process launching. Prior to 2.2.4, the _uid option in sh.py performs an incomplete privilege drop on Linux and Unix-like systems.
When sh runs from an elevated process and launches a command with _uid set to an unprivileged user, the child changes its UID but can retain the parent process's supplementary groups because the privilege-drop sequence does not fully establish the target user's UID, primary GID, and supplementary groups.
The child can therefore retain access to files or resources granted to privileged groups such as root, docker, disk, shadow, or sudo, violating the expected _uid privilege boundary. This issue is fixed in version 2.2.4.
This incomplete privilege drop can allow the child process to retain access to files or resources granted to privileged groups, leading to unauthorized access and potential privilege escalation. Red Hat severity: Important — CVSS 7.9 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N).
Weakness: CWE-273. Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4.
Red Hat does not currently list a fixing RHSA for this CVE.
- < 2.2.4
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 58 minutes ago·verify at source
- 2.2.4
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 58 minutes ago·verify at source
Mitigation
Upgrade to a fixed release: 2.2.4. That is the remediation for this advisory.
The vendor advisory may list additional interim mitigations or workarounds not captured here — review it before change work.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 58 minutes ago·verify at source
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