CVE-2026-61898
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.
Published:Aug 20, 2026
Last Modified:Aug 26, 2026
EPS:Aug 20, 2026
EPSS Score:0.0013
CVSS Score:7.8
Affected Products
Vendor
Product
Action
Vendor
Canonical
Product
Accountsservice
Canonical
Accountsservice
Exploits
No exploit reference
Common Weakness Enumeration
Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)
Related CVEs
Common Vulnerability Scoring System
Attack Vector
Network
Adjacent
Local
Physical
Privileges Required
None
Low
High
User Interaction
None
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Changed
Confidentiality
None
Low
High
Integrity
None
Low
High
Availability
None
Low
High
