High severity · published Apr 27, 2026
CVE-2026-6970
authd Denial of Service and Local Privilege Escalation
7.3
CVSS
0.1%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
authd prior to version 0.6.4 contains a logic error in primary group ID assignment that can lead to local privilege escalation. When a user's primary group ID (GID) differs from their UID, either because the account was created with authd prior to version 0.5.4 or because the primary group was manually changed via the `authctl group set-gid` command, and the user's identity provider record is updated, authd incorrectly resets the user's primary group ID to their UID upon next login. This causes newly created files and directories to be owned by the wrong group, causing denial of service issues, and potentially granting unintended access to other local users and allowing local privilege escalation.
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.1% · higher than 1% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
AU
authd · Canonical
0.6.0 before 0.6.4; 0.6.1 before 0.6.1ubuntu0.1 · source: vendor
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-6970
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-6970
github.com
https://github.com/canonical/authd/commit/154b428305cb1a7a19c897626fefd09d6dde8b9f
github.com
https://github.com/canonical/authd/security/advisories/GHSA-fg3j-5w9g-hmg7
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