CVE-2026-35535: CWE-271 Privilege Dropping / Lowering Errors in Sudo project Sudo
CVE-2026-35535 is a high-severity vulnerability in the Sudo project affecting versions through 1. 9. 17p2 before commit 3e474c2. The issue arises because failures in setuid, setgid, or setgroups system calls during privilege dropping before running the mailer are not treated as fatal errors. This flaw can lead to privilege escalation, allowing an attacker to gain elevated privileges. There is no vendor advisory or patch information currently available, and no known exploits have been reported in the wild. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 7. 4, indicating a significant security risk.
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
This vulnerability in Sudo occurs because errors in dropping privileges via setuid, setgid, or setgroups calls before executing the mailer are not handled as fatal. As a result, the process may continue running with higher privileges than intended, potentially enabling privilege escalation. The affected versions include all releases through 1.9.17p2 prior to commit 3e474c2. The CVSS 3.1 score is 7.4, reflecting high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. No official remediation or patch information is currently provided, and no exploits are known in the wild.
Potential Impact
Successful exploitation could allow an unprivileged user to escalate privileges due to improper handling of privilege dropping failures. This impacts system confidentiality, integrity, and availability by potentially granting unauthorized root-level access or equivalent privileges.
Mitigation Recommendations
Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. Until an official fix is released, users should monitor vendor communications closely and consider restricting access to vulnerable Sudo versions or applying temporary workarounds if available.
CVE-2026-35535: CWE-271 Privilege Dropping / Lowering Errors in Sudo project Sudo
Description
CVE-2026-35535 is a high-severity vulnerability in the Sudo project affecting versions through 1. 9. 17p2 before commit 3e474c2. The issue arises because failures in setuid, setgid, or setgroups system calls during privilege dropping before running the mailer are not treated as fatal errors. This flaw can lead to privilege escalation, allowing an attacker to gain elevated privileges. There is no vendor advisory or patch information currently available, and no known exploits have been reported in the wild. The vulnerability has a CVSS score of 7. 4, indicating a significant security risk.
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
This vulnerability in Sudo occurs because errors in dropping privileges via setuid, setgid, or setgroups calls before executing the mailer are not handled as fatal. As a result, the process may continue running with higher privileges than intended, potentially enabling privilege escalation. The affected versions include all releases through 1.9.17p2 prior to commit 3e474c2. The CVSS 3.1 score is 7.4, reflecting high impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability. No official remediation or patch information is currently provided, and no exploits are known in the wild.
Potential Impact
Successful exploitation could allow an unprivileged user to escalate privileges due to improper handling of privilege dropping failures. This impacts system confidentiality, integrity, and availability by potentially granting unauthorized root-level access or equivalent privileges.
Mitigation Recommendations
Patch status is not yet confirmed — check the vendor advisory for current remediation guidance. Until an official fix is released, users should monitor vendor communications closely and consider restricting access to vulnerable Sudo versions or applying temporary workarounds if available.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- mitre
- Date Reserved
- 2026-04-03T02:21:32.829Z
- Cvss Version
- 3.1
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Remediation Level
- null
Threat ID: 69cf565a0a160ebd92cd3eb8
Added to database: 4/3/2026, 5:55:38 AM
Last enriched: 4/10/2026, 9:09:15 AM
Last updated: 5/20/2026, 8:51:34 PM
Views: 139
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