What is CVE-2026-61897?

CVE-2026-61897 is a high-severity vulnerability in Canonical Accountsservice, classified under Improper Check for Dropped Privileges. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2026-08-20.

How severe is CVE-2026-61897?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.

Vulnerability in Canonical Accountsservice

CVE-2026-61897

An Ubuntu-specific patch to AccountsService before 23.13.9-8ubuntu7 only partially drops privileges before launching language helper scripts. It changes the effective UID/GID to the target user but leaves the real UID as 0 (root). A shell spawned by a helper script inherits ruid=0 and may reset its effective UID to root, enabling local privilege escalation.

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

Canonical Accountsservice

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-273 — Improper Check for Dropped Privileges

References

security@ubuntu.com (issue-tracking)
security@ubuntu.com (vendor-advisory)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-61897?: CVE-2026-61897 is a high-severity vulnerability in Canonical Accountsservice, classified under Improper Check for Dropped Privileges. CVSS score: 7.8/10. Published 2026-08-20.
How severe is CVE-2026-61897?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.8 out of 10.