Privilege escalation in Pi-Hole

CVE-2026-33727

Pi-hole is a Linux network-level advertisement and Internet tracker blocking application. Version 6.4 has a local privilege-escalation vulnerability allows code execution as root from the low-privilege pihole account. Important context: the pihole account uses nologin, so this is not a direct interactive-login issue. However, nologin does not prevent code from running as UID pihole if a Pi-hole component is compromised. In that realistic post-compromise scenario, attacker-controlled content in /etc/pihole/versions is sourced by root-run Pi-hole scripts, leading to root code execution. This vulnerability is fixed in 6.4.1.

Vulnerability class: Privilege Escalation

EPSS: 0.002 (12.2th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 6.4 (Medium). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Affected products

  • Pi-hole — versions >= 6.4, < 6.4.1, 6.4

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-33727?
CVE-2026-33727 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Pi-Hole, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 6.4/10. Published 2026-04-06.
How severe is CVE-2026-33727?
Medium severity. CVSS v3 base score is 6.4 out of 10.