Detections
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Ubuntu 18.04 LTS / 24.04 LTS : dracut vulnerabilities (USN-8828-1)

high Nessus Plugin ID 350946

Synopsis

The remote Ubuntu host is missing one or more security updates.

Description

The remote Ubuntu 18.04 LTS / 24.04 LTS host has packages installed that are affected by multiple vulnerabilities as referenced in the USN-8828-1 advisory.

 It was discovered that dracut created initramfs images with overly permissive permissions under certain circumstances. A local attacker could possibly use this issue to obtain sensitive information. This issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 LTS. (CVE-2016-8637)

 It was discovered that dracut did not properly sanitize DHCP options before writing them to shell scripts under certain circumstances. A remote attacker controlling a DHCP server on the local network could possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary code as root during system boot. This issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS.
 (CVE-2026-6893)

 It was discovered that dracut did not properly quote error messages written to shell scripts under certain circumstances. A remote attacker controlling a DHCP server on the local network could possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary code as root during system boot. This issue only affected Ubuntu 16.04 LTS, Ubuntu 18.04 LTS, Ubuntu 20.04 LTS, Ubuntu 22.04 LTS, and Ubuntu 24.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-15816)

 It was discovered that dracut did not properly sanitize network configuration data before writing it to a temporary shell script under certain circumstances. A remote attacker controlling DHCP on the local network could possibly use this issue to execute arbitrary code as root during system boot. This issue only affected Ubuntu 22.04 LTS. (CVE-2026-16445)

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

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

Solution

Update the affected packages.

See Also

https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8828-1

Plugin Details

Severity: High

ID: 350946

File Name: ubuntu_USN-8828-1.nasl

Version: 1.1

Type: Local

Agent: unix

Published: 9/29/2026

Updated: 9/29/2026

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

Risk Information

VPR

Risk Factor: Medium

Score: 4.9

Percentile: 58.23

CVSS v2

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 8.3

Temporal Score: 6.1

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

CVSS Score Source: CVE-2026-6893

CVSS v3

Risk Factor: High

Base Score: 7.5

Temporal Score: 6.5

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

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

Vulnerability Information

CPE: cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:18.04:-:lts, cpe:/o:canonical:ubuntu_linux:24.04:-:lts, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:dracut-config-generic, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:dracut-config-rescue, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:dracut-core, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:dracut-install, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:dracut-live, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:dracut-network, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:dracut-squash, p-cpe:/a:canonical:ubuntu_linux:dracut

Required KB Items: Host/cpu, Host/Debian/dpkg-l, Host/Ubuntu, Host/Ubuntu/release

Exploit Ease: No known exploits are available

Patch Publication Date: 9/28/2026

Vulnerability Publication Date: 6/10/2026

Reference Information

CVE: CVE-2026-15816, CVE-2026-6893

USN: 8828-1