CVE-2026-15816

HIGH 7.5

Dracut: dracut: root code execution via unescaped error message written to sourced emergency hook script in die()

CVSS Score

7.5

EPSS Score

0.0%

EPSS Percentile

0th

A flaw was found in dracut. The die() error-handling function writes its message into a shell script under the initramfs emergency-hook directory without properly shell-quoting it. When the message contains data derived from the DHCP ROOT_PATH option, an attacker on the adjacent network who controls a rogue DHCP server can inject a command-substitution sequence that executes as root the next time dracut sources its emergency hook scripts during standard boot-failure handling.

CWE	CWE-78
Vendor	red hat
Product	red hat enterprise linux 10
Published	Aug 7, 2026

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CVSS v3 Breakdown

CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector

Adjacent

Attack Complexity

High

Privileges Required

None

User Interaction

None

Scope

Unchanged

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

Affected Versions

Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10

All versions affected

Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

All versions affected

Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7

All versions affected

Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8

All versions affected

Red Hat / Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9

All versions affected

Red Hat / Red Hat Hardened Images

All versions affected

Red Hat / Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4

All versions affected

References

NVD ↗ CVE.org ↗ EPSS Data ↗

access.redhat.com: https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-15816 bugzilla.redhat.com: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2459963 bugzilla.redhat.com: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2500889 github.com: https://github.com/dracutdevs/dracut/blob/master/modules.d/40network/netroot.sh github.com: https://github.com/dracutdevs/dracut/blob/master/modules.d/99base/dracut-lib.sh

Credits

This issue was discovered by Pavel Valena (Red Hat).