CVE-2026-75092 Privilege escalation in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
Attackers with mysql user access can escalate to root during RHEL upgrades by placing malicious plugins in mysql-writable directories loaded by Leapp.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-75092?
CVE-2026-75092 is a high-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, published on 15 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
A privilege escalation flaw was found in the scan_mysql actor of leapp-upgrade-el9toel10 (provided by leapp-repository). During RHEL 9 to RHEL 10 upgrades, the actor runs: mysqld --validate-config --log-error-verbosity=2 directly as root in the Leapp actor context, bypassing the packaged MySQL systemd unit that normally starts the daemon as User=mysql.
A process compromised as the mysql OS identity can write a version-2 persisted configuration (mysqld-auto.cnf) and a malicious shared object into /var/lib/mysql (a directory owned by mysql). That persisted map can set plugin_dir to /var/lib/mysql and early_plugin_load (or related loader options such as plugin_load / plugin_load_add) so MySQL loads the attacker-controlled object during configuration validation. Plugin loading can reach dlopen() before MySQL’s runtime-user check and before plugin-symbol validation.
When an administrator subsequently runs the documented Leapp preupgrade or upgrade workflow, attacker-controlled code can execute as UID 0 with a full capability set in an unconfined SELinux domain (unconfined_t). The attack does not require write access to the default system plugin path under /usr; redirecting plugin_dir via mysql-owned persisted state is sufficient. Ordinary SQL privileges alone (including highly privileged SQL accounts) are not a sufficient startpoint — OS-level execution as the mysql service identity is required, plus later administrator invocation of Leapp.
Weakness: CWE-250
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-75092?
Linux distribution packages (8)
leapp-repository Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream | All versions | 0:0.24.0-1.el9_8.1 |
leapp-upgrade-el9toel10 Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream | All versions | 0:0.24.0-1.el9_8.1 |
leapp-upgrade-el9toel10-deps Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream | All versions | 0:0.24.0-1.el9_8.1 |
leapp-upgrade-el9toel10-fapolicyd Red Hat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream | All versions | 0:0.24.0-1.el9_8.1 |
leapp-repository Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.6::appstream | All versions | 0:0.22.0-1.el9_6.2 |
leapp-upgrade-el9toel10 Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.6::appstream | All versions | 0:0.22.0-1.el9_6.2 |
leapp-upgrade-el9toel10-deps Red Hat:rhel_eus:9.6::appstream | All versions | 0:0.22.0-1.el9_6.2 |
leapp-repository Rocky Linux:9 | All versions | 0:0.24.0-1.el9_8.1 |
How do I fix CVE-2026-75092?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2026-75092 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-75092 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-p54p-wj4h-hhp9, RHSA-2026:67608, RHSA-2026:67609, RLSA-2026:67608.