CVE-2026-61897 accountsservice: incomplete privilege drop when running Ubuntu-specific language helper scripts
Local attackers can escalate privileges to root because Ubuntu's accountsservice fails to fully drop root privileges when launching language helper scripts.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-61897?
CVE-2026-61897 is a high-severity vulnerability in Canonical accountsservice, published on 20 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
An Ubuntu-specific patch to AccountsService before 23.13.9-8ubuntu7 only partially drops privileges before launching language helper scripts. It changes the effective UID/GID to the target user but leaves the real UID as 0 (root). A shell spawned by a helper script inherits ruid=0 and may reset its effective UID to root, enabling local privilege escalation.
Weakness: CWE-273
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-61897?
How do I fix CVE-2026-61897?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-61897 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-61897 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-8h74-384h-cv6c, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-61897.