CVE-2026-12505: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges in Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
A flaw was found in the cifs-utils package where the cifs.upcall helper fails to securely drop its root privileges before looking up user information inside a user-controlled environment. A local, low privileged attacker can exploit this by using a crafted request_key payload to trick the root-owned helper into entering a custom environment (namespace) containing a malicious NSS module. This forces the system to load the attacker's controlled NSS Module and configuration, allowing them to execute arbitrary commands as the root user, elevating their privileges and fully compromising the system.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
The vulnerability in cifs-utils involves the cifs.upcall helper failing to drop root privileges securely before looking up user information in a user-controlled environment. A local attacker with low privileges can exploit this by crafting a request_key payload that causes the root-owned helper to enter a custom environment containing a malicious NSS module. This forces the system to load the attacker's NSS module and configuration, enabling arbitrary command execution as root and full system compromise. The issue is tracked as CVE-2026-12505 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 (high severity). Red Hat has released security updates for affected versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 to fix this local privilege escalation vulnerability.
Potential Impact
Successful exploitation allows a local, low privileged attacker to escalate privileges to root by executing arbitrary commands with root privileges. This leads to full system compromise on affected Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 systems running vulnerable versions of cifs-utils.
Mitigation Recommendations
Red Hat has released official security updates that fix this vulnerability. Users should apply the cifs-utils package update to versions 10.2 or later as provided in Red Hat's security advisories RHSA-2026:32990 and RHSA-2026:39575. Patch details and update instructions are available at https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258. Applying these updates fully mitigates the vulnerability.
CVE-2026-12505: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges in Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
Description
A flaw was found in the cifs-utils package where the cifs.upcall helper fails to securely drop its root privileges before looking up user information inside a user-controlled environment. A local, low privileged attacker can exploit this by using a crafted request_key payload to trick the root-owned helper into entering a custom environment (namespace) containing a malicious NSS module. This forces the system to load the attacker's controlled NSS Module and configuration, allowing them to execute arbitrary commands as the root user, elevating their privileges and fully compromising the system.
CVSS v3.1
Score 7.8high
Affected software
Weaknesses
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
The vulnerability in cifs-utils involves the cifs.upcall helper failing to drop root privileges securely before looking up user information in a user-controlled environment. A local attacker with low privileges can exploit this by crafting a request_key payload that causes the root-owned helper to enter a custom environment containing a malicious NSS module. This forces the system to load the attacker's NSS module and configuration, enabling arbitrary command execution as root and full system compromise. The issue is tracked as CVE-2026-12505 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.8 (high severity). Red Hat has released security updates for affected versions of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 to fix this local privilege escalation vulnerability.
Potential Impact
Successful exploitation allows a local, low privileged attacker to escalate privileges to root by executing arbitrary commands with root privileges. This leads to full system compromise on affected Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 systems running vulnerable versions of cifs-utils.
Mitigation Recommendations
Red Hat has released official security updates that fix this vulnerability. Users should apply the cifs-utils package update to versions 10.2 or later as provided in Red Hat's security advisories RHSA-2026:32990 and RHSA-2026:39575. Patch details and update instructions are available at https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258. Applying these updates fully mitigates the vulnerability.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- redhat
- Date Reserved
- 2026-06-17T10:15:14.786Z
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Remediation Level
- null
- Vendor Advisory Urls
- [{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-12505","vendor":"Red Hat"}]
Threat ID: 6a337200f198dc38c11589de
Added to database: 06/18/2026, 04:20:16 UTC
Last enriched: 07/29/2026, 21:31:59 UTC
Last updated: 08/01/2026, 07:17:58 UTC
Views: 112
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