CVE-2026-12505
HIGHCifs-utils: local privilege escalation via forged cifs.spnego key description in cifs.upcall
Title source: cnaDescription
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.
References (3)
Core 3
Core References
Vdb Entry, X_Refsource_Redhat vdb-entry
x_refsource_redhat
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-12505
Issue Tracking, X_Refsource_Redhat issue-tracking
x_refsource_redhat
RHBZ#2489805
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2489805
Scores
CVSS v3
7.8
EPSS
0.0012
EPSS Percentile
2.1%
Attack Vector
LOCAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
CISA SSVC
Vulnrichment
Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical Impact
total
Details
CWE
CWE-250
Status
published
Products (6)
Red Hat/Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
Red Hat/Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
Red Hat/Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
Red Hat/Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Red Hat/Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
Red Hat/Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
Published
Jun 18, 2026
Tracked Since
Jun 18, 2026