CVE-2026-61897

accountsservice: incomplete privilege drop when running Ubuntu-specific language helper scripts

State: Published
Severity: 7.8 High
Published: Aug 20, 2026
Updated: Aug 26, 2026
Reserved: Jul 11, 2026

Description

An Ubuntu-specific patch to AccountsService before 23.13.9-8ubuntu7 only partially drops privileges before launching language helper scripts. It changes the effective UID/GID to the target user but leaves the real UID as 0 (root). A shell spawned by a helper script inherits ruid=0 and may reset its effective UID to root, enabling local privilege escalation.

Scores

CVSS	Score	Vector	Source
3.1	7.8 High	CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H	canonical

Weaknesses

CWE-273 Improper Check for Dropped Privileges

Affected Products

Product	Versions
accountsserviceCanonical	22.07.5-2ubuntu1 to before 22.07.5-2ubuntu1.6Affected 23.13.9-2ubuntu6 to before 23.13.9-2ubuntu6.1Affected 23.13.9-8ubuntu5 to before 23.13.9-8ubuntu5.2Affected 23.13.9-8ubuntu6 to before 23.13.9-8ubuntu7Affected

References

Launchpad Bug #2157985issue-tracking
Ubuntu CVE Trackervendor-advisory

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