# CVE-2026-61898: accountsservice: shell injection via attacker-controlled ~/.pam_environment in Ubuntu language helper scripts

> Attackers can execute arbitrary shell commands with root privileges by injecting malicious input into the LANGUAGE variable in ~/.pam_environment via D-Bus.

- **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
- **Login needed:** Any signed-in user
- **Attackable:** Local or same network only
- **Victim action needed:** Not needed
- **Fix available:** Yes
- **Published:** 20 Aug 2026
- **Updated:** 26 Aug 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-vqj6-342m-9cvg, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-61898

## What is CVE-2026-61898?

CVE-2026-61898 is a high-severity command injection 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

The Ubuntu-specific language helper scripts (save-to-pam-env, update-langlist) shipped with accountsservice before 23.13.9-8ubuntu7 treat the user-controlled LANGUAGE entry in ~/.pam_environment as trusted input. The value is interpolated unescaped into a GNU sed replacement expression, allowing an attacker to inject a sed 'e' flag and arbitrary shell commands that execute with the privileges of the AccountsService helper process (real UID 0) via the SetLanguage D-Bus method.

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

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-61898?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-61898?

Apply the vendor's patch.

## Is CVE-2026-61898 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-61898 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-61898 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-61898 is a high-severity command injection 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.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-61898 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Canonical accountsservice. 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-2026-61898/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-61898/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-61898
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-61898
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-61898

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-61898/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.