Privilege escalation in Openwrt

CVE-2026-30874

OpenWrt Project is a Linux operating system targeting embedded devices. In versions prior to 24.10.6, a vulnerability in the hotplug_call function allows an attacker to bypass environment variable filtering and inject an arbitrary PATH variable, potentially leading to privilege escalation. The function is intended to filter out sensitive environment variables like PATH when executing hotplug scripts in /etc/hotplug.d, but a bug using strcmp instead of strncmp causes the filter to compare the full environment string (e.g., PATH=/some/value) against the literal "PATH", so the match always fails. As a result, the PATH variable is never excluded, enabling an attacker to control which binaries are executed by procd-invoked scripts running with elevated privileges. This issue has been fixed in version 24.10.6.

EPSS: 0.003 (21.9th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 7.8 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-30874?
CVE-2026-30874 is a high-severity vulnerability in Openwrt, classified under Improper Neutralization of Special Elements in Output Used by a Downstream Component (Injection). CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2026-03-19.
How severe is CVE-2026-30874?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.