Amazon Linux 2 : mrtg, --advisory ALAS2-2026-3884 (ALAS-2026-3884)

high Nessus Plugin ID 341849

Synopsis

The remote Amazon Linux 2 host is missing a security update.

Description

The version of mrtg installed on the remote host is prior to 2.17.4-11. It is, therefore, affected by a vulnerability as referenced in the ALAS2-2026-3884 advisory.

A flaw was found in MRTG. When the MRTG daemon is started as a root user and subsequently drops privileges, a local, low-privileged attacker can exploit a symbolic link (symlink) following vulnerability. By influencing or pre-placing a symlink in the process ID (PID) file path, the attacker can trick the root process into changing the ownership of an arbitrary existing file to the daemon user. This can lead to local privilege escalation, allowing unauthorized access to or modification of sensitive files. (CVE-2026-72694)

Tenable has extracted the preceding description block directly from the tested product security advisory.

Note that Nessus has not tested for this issue but has instead relied only on the application's self-reported version number.

Solution

Run 'yum update mrtg' or or 'yum update --advisory ALAS2-2026-3884' to update your system.

See Also

https://alas.aws.amazon.com//AL2/ALAS2-2026-3884.html

https://alas.aws.amazon.com/faqs.html

https://explore.alas.aws.amazon.com/CVE-2026-72694.html

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 341849

File Name: al2_ALAS-2026-3884.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Published: 8/31/2026

Updated: 8/31/2026

Supported Sensors: Agentless Assessment, Continuous Assessment, Frictionless Assessment Agent, Frictionless Assessment AWS, Nessus Agent, Tenable Cloud Security, Tenable Self-Hosted Container Security, Nessus

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.3

Percentile: 53.53

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: Medium

Base Score: 6.2

Temporal Score: 4.6

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-72694

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.1

Temporal Score: 6.2

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:amazon:linux:2, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:mrtg-debuginfo, p-cpe:/a:amazon:linux:mrtg

Required KB Items: Host/local_checks_enabled, Host/AmazonLinux/release, Host/AmazonLinux/rpm-list

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 8/31/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 8/11/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-72694