Red Hat Enterprise Linux initramfs die ROOT_PATH injection

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as very critical has been discovered in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Hardened Images and OpenShift Container Platform. Impacted is the function die of the component initramfs. Such manipulation of the argument ROOT_PATH leads to injection. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2026-15816. The attack can be executed remotely. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Hardened Images and OpenShift Container Platform (affected version unknown) and classified as very critical. Affected by this issue is the function die of the component initramfs. The manipulation of the argument ROOT_PATH with an unknown input leads to a injection vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-74. The product constructs all or part of a command, data structure, or record using externally-influenced input from an upstream component, but it does not neutralize or incorrectly neutralizes special elements that could modify how it is parsed or interpreted when it is sent to a downstream component. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

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.

The advisory is shared for download at access.redhat.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-15816 since 07/15/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. No form of authentication is required for exploitation. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $5k-$25k (estimation calculated on 08/07/2026). The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1055.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Red Hat

Name

• Enterprise Linux
• Hardened Images
• OpenShift Container Platform

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.redhat.com/

CPE 2.3info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CPE 2.2info

• 🔒
• 🔒
• 🔒

CVSSv4info

CVSSv3info

CVSSv2info

Exploitinginfo

Threat Intelligenceinfo

Countermeasuresinfo

Timelineinfo

Sourcesinfo

Entryinfo

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Discussion