Answer in brief
CVE-2026-61898 records a High severity (CVSS 7.8) vulnerability in accountsservice: shell injection via attacker-controlled ~/.pam_environment in Ubuntu language helper scripts. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. The current feed maps Canonical/accountsservice (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
Analysis pending evidence review
HOL Guard separates source facts from reviewed analysis. See the methodology.
CVSS is 7.8. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.
Analysis status
Analysis pending evidence review
Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.
The current feed maps Canonical/accountsservice (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.
| Package | Affected range | Fixed version |
|---|---|---|
| Canonical/accountsservicegeneric | >=22.07.5-2ubuntu1 <22.07.5-2ubuntu1.6 || >=23.13.9-2ubuntu6 <23.13.9-2ubuntu6.1 || >=23.13.9-8ubuntu5 <23.13.9-8ubuntu5.2 || >=23.13.9-8ubuntu6 <23.13.9-8ubuntu7 | 22.07.5-2ubuntu1.6, 23.13.9-2ubuntu6.1, 23.13.9-8ubuntu5.2, 23.13.9-8ubuntu7 |
Published upstream
Aug 20, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordSource modified
Aug 28, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:recordFirst seen by HOL
Aug 20, 2026
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.
Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.