Linux Distros Unpatched Vulnerability : CVE-2026-48501

critical Nessus Plugin ID 318545

Synopsis

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed with a vulnerability that the vendor indicates will not be patched.

Description

The Linux/Unix host has one or more packages installed that are impacted by a vulnerability without a vendor supplied patch available.

- GitHub CLI (gh) is GitHub's official command line tool. Prior to 2.93.0, GitHub CLI incorrectly includes authorization header in API requests to TUF repository mirrors via gh attestation, gh release verify, and gh release verify-asset commands. The CLI uses a shared HTTP client with an authentication layer that automatically attaches tokens to outgoing requests. This layer lacks accurate host detection and can incorrectly attribute the target host, providing it with a token it should never receive. Specifically, the host normalization logic collapses any *.github.com subdomain to github.com, so a request to tuf- repo.github.com (a GitHub Pages site, not a GitHub API endpoint) is treated as a request to github.com and receives the user's github.com token. For hosts that don't match github.com or a known GHES instance at all, the resolver falls back to GH_ENTERPRISE_TOKEN if set. The gh attestation, gh release verify and gh release verify-asset commands fetch data from several external hosts as part of their normal operation (TUF metadata from tuf-repo.github.com and tuf-repo-cdn.sigstore.dev, artifact bundles from Azure Blob Storage). Because these requests go through the same authenticated HTTP client, the token is sent to all of them. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.93.0. (CVE-2026-48501)

Note that Nessus relies on the presence of the package as reported by the vendor.

Solution

There is no known solution at this time.

See Also

https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-48501

https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-48501

Plugin Details

Severity: Critical

ID: 318545

File Name: unpatched_CVE_2026_48501.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Family: Misc.

Published: 6/3/2026

Updated: 6/3/2026

Supported Sensors: Nessus Agent, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 6.0

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 5.5

Temporal Score: 4.7

Vector: CVSS2#AV:N/AC:L/Au:S/C:P/I:P/A:N

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-48501

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: Critical

Base Score: 9.1

Temporal Score: 8.3

Vector: CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N

Temporal Vector: CVSS:3.0/E:U/RL:U/RC:C

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:12.0, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:13.0, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:golang-github-cli-go-gh-v2, p-cpe:/a:debian:debian_linux:golang-github-cli-go-gh, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:golang-github-cli-go-gh-v2, cpe:/o:debian:debian_linux:14.0, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:golang-github-cli-go-gh, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:25.10, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:26.04:-:lts

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/cpu, global_settings/vendor_unpatched, Host/OS/identifier

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Vulnerability Publication Date: 5/29/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-48501