CVE
Cockpit: cockpit: local privilege escalation via insecure symlink handling in public key addition helper
Affects Cockpit's Users "Add public key" helper on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 through 10 and Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces when it runs with elevated privileges. Fixed upstream in Cockpit 372.
Written by anthropic/claude-haiku-5.5 from the sources below. Verify against them.
- Exploited
- No known exploitation
- Fix
- Fixed in 372
- Who is exposed
- Specific setups only
Do first: Check whether your setup matches what the bug needs. A local authenticated user must be able to control the target account's home directory contents. The Users "Add public key" helper must run with elevated privileges, such as in an active privileged Cockpit session.
- Last modified
- Whether it needs action now or is a reference record, by fixed rules, with why. Last checked is when cve.now last re-read it.What do these mean? →
- Reference
- Last checked
- A 0-100 score for how much a CVE matters across the industry: exploitation, exposure, how widely the software is used, severity and whether a fix exists.What do these mean? →
- 22/100 · provisional
- How many real-world setups can hit the bug, from the vendor's advisory and CISA data. It does not know your setup.What do these mean? →
- Specific setups only
- Whether working attack code is public (Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei or GitHub). Public code makes attacks easier.What do these mean? →
- None on Exploit-DB, Metasploit or GitHub
Summary
Cockpit, as packaged for Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9 and 10 and for several Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces images, has a flaw in its `ssh-add-public-key.sh` helper that can be abused by a local user who already has an account. The attacker must have control over a target account's home directory and must interact with the system, and can use symlink tricks to change file ownership and permissions, which could lead to privilege escalation.
Read the original description
A flaw was found in Cockpit. A local authenticated user with control over a target account's home directory can exploit a privileged symlink dereference vulnerability in the ssh-add-public-key.sh helper. When this helper runs with elevated privileges, it can be tricked into following attacker-controlled symlinks within the .ssh or authorized_keys paths. This allows the attacker to arbitrarily change file ownership and modes, potentially leading to local privilege escalation and impacting the integrity, confidentiality, and availability of the system.
Who should check
Teams running Cockpit Users "Add public key" workflow in privileged sessions on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9, 10 or OpenShift Dev Spaces hosts.
cve.now Index
- Exploitation?/40Unknown. No CISA SSVC exploitation rating yet
- Exposure5/25Specific setups only
- Reach10/20Shipped in major Linux distributions
- Severity7.3/10CVSS 7.3
- No patch0/5No signal
What would change the score
- Would score about 72 if added to CISA KEV
- Would score about 67 if CISA's SSVC rates exploitation active
- Would score about 32 if CISA's SSVC rates it automatable
What to do
Check whether your setup matches what the bug needs.
A local authenticated user must be able to control the target account's home directory contents. The Users "Add public key" helper must run with elevated privileges, such as in an active privileged Cockpit session.Upgrade to a fixed version: 372.
Workaround: Avoid using the Users "Add public key" workflow in a privileged session for untrusted accounts, and verify that the target account's .ssh directory and authorized_keys path are not symlinks.
Check your systems with an agent
Paste this into a coding or ops agent. It checks your systems read-only and reports a table per asset.
Check whether my systems are affected by CVE-2026-91151 (Cockpit: cockpit: local privilege escalation via insecure symlink handling in public key addition helper), using the cve.now data below.
Rules: work read-only. Do not run exploit code, proof-of-concept scripts or scanners that send attack payloads, and do not change any configuration, package, image or deployment. Report findings only.
What cve.now has for CVE-2026-91151 (entry last updated 2026-11-11):
Affected:
- Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10: version range not reported
- Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7: version range not reported
- Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8: version range not reported
- Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9: version range not reported
- Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces: version range not reported
- Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces: version range not reported
- Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces: version range not reported
Fixed versions: 372.
Conditions (all must be true for the bug to be hit):
- A local authenticated user must be able to control the target account's home directory contents. (source: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2478404)
- The Users "Add public key" helper must run with elevated privileges, such as in an active privileged Cockpit session. (source: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2478404)
Setup: unknown whether the bug needs a non-default feature or setting. Check the advisory.
Attacker needs: local access, low-privilege login, a user action.
Workaround: Avoid using the Users "Add public key" workflow in a privileged session for untrusted accounts, and verify that the target account's .ssh directory and authorized_keys path are not symlinks. (source: https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2478404)
CISA KEV: CVE-2026-91151 is not listed as of cve.now's last read.
This KEV status is for CVE-2026-91151 only. If you also check another CVE, look up its own KEV status; never assume it from this one.
How to check:
- Installed software: check what is actually running, not what a repo declares. Read the version from each host, container image and Kubernetes node (the binary's version output, the OS package database, image layers), and check whether the conditions above hold there. Distribution packages may carry a backported fix under an older version number; confirm against the distribution's own advisory.
Verify against the linked advisories before concluding, and cite the date you read each one:
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2478404
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-91151
- https://github.com/cockpit-project/cockpit/commit/4796b28be064a90e32262cec85be7839e6198e23
- https://github.com/cockpit-project/cockpit/releases/tag/372
Do not conclude an asset is unaffected unless you checked it and the evidence covers both its version and the conditions above. If you could not check something, mark it unknown and say what is missing.
Report a table with one row per asset and these columns: Asset | Version or build | Status (affected, fixed, not applicable, unknown) | Compensating controls | Exposure (internet-facing, internal, none) | Evidence | Next action.
Entry: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-91151
For follow-up questions, use the cve.now MCP server at https://mcp.cve.now/mcp (no authentication), for example execute with name cve.get and arguments {"id": "CVE-2026-91151"}.Timeline
- CVE published
- First seen by cve.now
Affected versions
- cockpit
Version range not reported
- cockpit
Version range not reported
- cockpit
Version range not reported
- cockpit
Version range not reported
- devspaces/udi-base-rhel10
Version range not reported
- devspaces/udi-base-rhel9
Version range not reported
- devspaces/udi-rhel9
Version range not reported
Evidence 6
CVE record · 2
Establishes: The identifier and description.
- Record
- Record
Write-ups · 1
Establishes: Technical detail and context.
- Report
Other links · 3
- Repository
- Repository
- Link
Corrections
None so far.
Something wrong on this page? Report an error. Every fix is listed here.
Questions about CVE-2026-91151
Is CVE-2026-91151 being exploited?
It is not in CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog, and CISA's SSVC assessment does not mark exploitation as active. That does not mean it has not been attacked: vendors and researchers can report attacks before CISA lists them. No public exploit code is tracked.Source: cve.now feed data
What does this mean?
The public key helper can be tricked by symlinks in a target account's home directory, so a local user can change the ownership and modes of files they should not control. That can lead to local privilege escalation.Source: bugzilla.redhat.com, access.redhat.com
Am I affected, and how do I check?
The listed products are Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7, 8, 9 and 10 and Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces. The bug requires the Users "Add public key" helper to run with elevated privileges, such as in a privileged Cockpit session, and a local user who can control the target account's home directory contents. To check, look at the installed Cockpit package version and whether the .ssh directory or authorized_keys path of the target account is a symlink.Source: bugzilla.redhat.com, access.redhat.com
How do I fix CVE-2026-91151?
Upgrade Cockpit to version 372 or later, which contains the upstream fix. Until the update is applied, avoid the Users "Add public key" workflow in privileged sessions for untrusted accounts and verify that the target account's .ssh directory and authorized_keys path are not symlinks.Source: bugzilla.redhat.com, access.redhat.com