High severity · published Aug 20, 2026
CVE-2026-61898
accountsservice: shell injection via attacker-controlled ~/.pam_environment in Ubuntu language helper scripts
7.8
CVSS
0.2%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
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.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.2% · higher than 8% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
AC
accountsservice · Canonical
22.07.5-2ubuntu1 before 22.07.5-2ubuntu1.6; 23.13.9-2ubuntu6 before 23.13.9-2ubuntu6.1; 23.13.9-8ubuntu5 before 23.13.9-8ubuntu5.2; 23.13.9-8ubuntu6 before 23.13.9-8ubuntu7 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-61898
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-61898
bugs.launchpad.net
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/accountsservice/+bug/2157985
ubuntu.com
https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-61898
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