High [CVE-2026-61897] Local privilege escalation via incomplete privilege drop in language helper scripts
This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-61897.
Android app · Google Play
Monitor future Red Hat Linux CVEs from your phone.
Choose a whole vendor or a precise platform, then receive matching security advisories by phone notification, email, or both. Coverage follows 32 official vendor sources and 160+ reviewed platform categories.
Summary
A flaw was found in AccountsService. An Ubuntu-specific patch for AccountsService did not fully drop root privileges when launching language helper scripts.
This oversight allows a local user to exploit the incomplete privilege drop, potentially enabling them to reset their effective user ID to root. This could lead to local privilege escalation, granting unauthorized administrative access to the system.
Red Hat products do not include this specific patch, therefore they are not directly affected by this flaw. Red Hat severity: Important — CVSS 7.8 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).
Weakness: CWE-273. Red Hat lists Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 as not affected.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 53 minutes ago·verify at source
Fixed versions
No fixed release is recorded yet. That does not prove no patch exists — confirm against the vendor advisory.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 53 minutes ago·verify at source
Mitigation
The source record does not include mitigation steps. That is not a statement that no fix exists — read the vendor advisory below for the authoritative guidance.
Official advisory · medium-confidence parse· fetched 53 minutes ago·verify at source
Discussion(0)
No comments yet. Share field notes, upgrade gotchas, or questions — verify against the vendor advisory before acting on community advice.
Sign in to join the discussion.