CVE-2026-15816

high

Description

A flaw was found in dracut. The die() error-handling function writes its message into a shell script under the initramfs emergency-hook directory without properly shell-quoting it. When the message contains data derived from the DHCP ROOT_PATH option, an attacker on the adjacent network who controls a rogue DHCP server can inject a command-substitution sequence that executes as root the next time dracut sources its emergency hook scripts during standard boot-failure handling.

References

https://github.com/dracutdevs/dracut/blob/master/modules.d/99base/dracut-lib.sh

https://github.com/dracutdevs/dracut/blob/master/modules.d/40network/netroot.sh

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2500889

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2459963

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-15816

Details

Source: Mitre, NVD

Published: 2026-08-07

Updated: 2026-08-07

Risk Information

CVSS v2

Base Score: 6.8

Vector: CVSS2#AV:A/AC:H/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Severity: Medium

CVSS v3

Base Score: 7.5

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Severity: High