CVE-2026-61898
7.8
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Summary
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.
Affected Software
| Vendor | Product | Version Range | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Canonical | accountsservice | 22.07.5-2ubuntu1 < 22.07.5-2ubuntu1.6 | affected |
| Canonical | accountsservice | 23.13.9-2ubuntu6 < 23.13.9-2ubuntu6.1 | affected |
| Canonical | accountsservice | 23.13.9-8ubuntu5 < 23.13.9-8ubuntu5.2 | affected |
| Canonical | accountsservice | 23.13.9-8ubuntu6 < 23.13.9-8ubuntu7 | affected |
Weaknesses
- CWE-78: CWE-78: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command ('OS Command Injection')
References
- https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/accountsservice/+bug/2157985
- https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-61898
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