# CVE-2026-119335: Pi-hole: Local privilege escalation from `pihole` user to root via CVE-2026-41489 fix bypass


- **Severity:** High 7.8 (`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H`)
- **Exploited in the wild:** Not known
- **Fix available:** No
- **Published:** 30 Oct 2026
- **Updated:** 5 Nov 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-cf36-4hhc-8398

## What is CVE-2026-119335?

CVE-2026-119335 is a high-severity vulnerability in pi-hole, published on 30 Oct 2026. 

### Official description

Pi-hole is a DNS sinkhole that protects devices from unwanted content without installing any client-side software. Prior to 6.5, advanced/Scripts/utils.sh getFTLPID() attempts to validate the pihole-owned /run/pihole-FTL.pid file with expr "${FTL_PID}" : "[^[:digit:]]", but this rejects only values whose first character is not a digit. An attacker with code execution as the pihole user can write a digit-prefixed arithmetic expression to the pihole-owned PID file. Root-run pihole subcommands then evaluate [[ "$pid" -eq "-1" ]], causing Bash to recursively evaluate array subscripts and execute command substitution as root. This bypasses the content-validation portion of the CVE-2026-41489 remediation while leaving its hardcoded PID-file path protection intact. This issue is fixed in version 6.5.

Weakness: CWE-78 (Improper Neutralization of Special Elements used in an OS Command)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-119335?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-119335?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-119335 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-119335 being exploited?

It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-119335 exists.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-119335 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-119335 is a high-severity vulnerability in pi-hole, published on 30 Oct 2026. 
Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-119335 exists.

Affected product: pi-hole. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.

Task:
1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies.
2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it.
3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead.
4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why.
5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing.

Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-119335/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-119335/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-119335
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-119335
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-119335

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-119335/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.