RCE in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
CVE-2026-15816
A flaw was found in dracut. The die() error-handling function writes its message into a shell script under the initramfs emergency-hook directory without properly shell-quoting it. When the message contains data derived from the DHCP ROOT_PATH option, an attacker on the adjacent network who controls a rogue DHCP server can inject a command-substitution sequence that executes as root the next time dracut sources its emergency hook scripts during standard boot-failure handling.
Vulnerability class: Command Injection (OS Command Injection)
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.004 (31.1th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 31st percentile — 31.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.004 · change: 0.000
Affected products
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 — versions 0:107-9.el10_2
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 — versions 0:049-246.git20260728.el8_10
- Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 — versions 0:057-120.git20260728.el9_8
- Red Hat Hardened Images
- Red Hat Openshift Container Platform 4
- Red Hat Openshift Container Platform 5
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-15816 (vdb-entry)
- bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi
- bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi (issue-tracking)
- github.com/dracutdevs/dracut/blob/master/modules.d/40network/netroot.sh
- github.com/dracutdevs/dracut/blob/master/modules.d/99base/dracut-lib.sh
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54571 (vendor-advisory)
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54575 (vendor-advisory)
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:54576 (vendor-advisory)
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:57580 (vendor-advisory)
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:57775 (vendor-advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-15816?
- CVE-2026-15816 is a high-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, classified under OS Command Injection. CVSS score: 7.5/10. Published 2026-08-07.
- How severe is CVE-2026-15816?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.5 out of 10.