High [CVE-2026-61898] Arbitrary code execution via shell injection
This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-61898.
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Summary
A flaw was found in accountsservice. A local attacker can exploit this by injecting arbitrary shell commands into the user-controlled LANGUAGE entry in the ~/.pam_environment file.
The Ubuntu-specific language helper scripts process this input unescaped, leading to arbitrary code execution with root privileges via the SetLanguage D-Bus method. Red Hat products do not utilize these particular scripts, therefore, this flaw does not affect Red Hat Enterprise Linux or its supported derivatives.
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-78.
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 57 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 57 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 57 minutes ago·verify at source
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