High [CVE-2026-72693] Local privilege escalation in openvt via incorrect process owner verification allowing passwordless root login
This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-72693 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7.
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Summary
Local privilege escalation in openvt via incorrect process owner verification allowing passwordless root login. Red Hat rates this moderate (CVSS 7.8).
Weakness: CWE-284.
Affected products named by the advisory: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8; and 4 more.
Affected products named by the advisory: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9; Red Hat Hardened Images; Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4; Red Hat package: kbd.
Affected versions
No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative — check it before change work.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 2 hours 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 · high-confidence parse· fetched 2 hours ago·verify at source
Mitigation checklist
- To mitigate this issue, avoid using `openvt -u` in privileged `kbrequest`/init deployments. Instead, configure the keyboard request to initiate a standard authenticated login on the new virtual terminal, or disable the keyboard request binding entirely until a fix is available. Changes to `kbrequest` configurations may require a system restart or service reload to take effect.
Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 2 hours ago·verify at source
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