CVE-2026-61898accountsservice: shell injection via attacker-controlled ~/.pam_environment in Ubuntu language helper scripts
Updated under an hour ago ()
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It affects Canonical accountsservice. Add what you run to find out whether that includes you.
No exploitation reported and no EPSS estimate yet.
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Free account, 1 product
The Ubuntu-specific language helper scripts (save-to-pam-env, update-langlist) shipped with accountsservice before 23.13.9-8ubuntu7 treat the user-controlled LANGUAGE entry in ~/.pam_environment as trusted input. The value is interpolated unescaped into a GNU sed replacement expression, allowing an attacker to inject a sed 'e' flag and arbitrary shell commands that execute with the privileges of the AccountsService helper process (real UID 0) via the SetLanguage D-Bus method.
- CVSS
- 7.8 HIGH (v3.1, CNA)CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- Weakness (CWE)
- CWE-78
- Known exploited
- Not in CISA's KEV catalog
- EPSS (exploitation in the next 30 days)
- Not loaded for this CVE
- Assigned by
- canonical
- NVD analysis
- Awaiting Analysis
- Record last updated
- Aug 26, 2026
- First seen by InfoSec Signals
- Oct 9, 2026
Affected products
Canonical accountsservice canonical:accountsservice (from the name) | from 22.07.5-2ubuntu1 before 22.07.5-2ubuntu1.6; from 23.13.9-2ubuntu6 before 23.13.9-2ubuntu6.1; from 23.13.9-8ubuntu5 before 23.13.9-8ubuntu5.2; from 23.13.9-8ubuntu6 before 23.13.9-8ubuntu7 | CNA record |
References
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/accountsservice/+bug/2157985issue-tracking
- https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-61898vendor-advisory
The CVE record on cve.org NVD's entry
The CVE record is authoritative. Products marked “from the name” were identified from the CNA's free-text names, not a CPE, and are matched less certainly. This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD.