CVE-2026-61898

HIGH 7.8

accountsservice: shell injection via attacker-controlled ~/.pam_environment in Ubuntu language helper scripts

CVSS Score

7.8

EPSS Score

0.0%

EPSS Percentile

0th

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.

CWE	CWE-78
Vendor	canonical
Product	accountsservice
Ecosystems	Linux
Industries	Technology
Published	Aug 20, 2026

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CVSS v3 Breakdown

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

Attack Vector

Attack Complexity

Privileges Required

User Interaction

Scope

Confidentiality

Integrity

Availability

Affected Versions

Canonical / accountsservice

22.07.5-2ubuntu1 < 22.07.5-2ubuntu1.6 23.13.9-2ubuntu6 < 23.13.9-2ubuntu6.1 23.13.9-8ubuntu5 < 23.13.9-8ubuntu5.2 23.13.9-8ubuntu6 < 23.13.9-8ubuntu7

References

NVD ↗ CVE.org ↗ EPSS Data ↗

bugs.launchpad.net: https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/accountsservice/+bug/2157985 ubuntu.com: https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-61898

Credits

Deutsche Telekom Security GmbH Red Team