Red Hat Enterprise Linux Cgroup cgroup.procs privileges management

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability marked as problematic has been reported in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Hardened Images and OpenShift Container Platform. The impacted element is an unknown function of the file cgroup.procs of the component Cgroup. This manipulation causes privileges management. This vulnerability is registered as CVE-2026-78408. The attack needs to be launched locally. No exploit is available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Red Hat Enterprise Linux, Hardened Images and OpenShift Container Platform (the affected version is unknown). It has been declared as problematic. Affected by this vulnerability is an unknown code of the file cgroup.procs of the component Cgroup. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a privileges management vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-269. The product does not properly assign, modify, track, or check privileges for an actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. As an impact it is known to affect integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

The nsenter --join-cgroup option opens the target cgroup.procs file as root and leaves that file descriptor open across later namespace and credential changes and across execve(). Because the kernel checks later cgroup migrations using the credentials from the original open, a program run in an attacker-controlled target can inherit root's ability to move host processes between cgroups. After a privileged operator uses --join-cgroup against that target, an unprivileged user can migrate and terminate unrelated root processes.

The advisory is shared at access.redhat.com. This vulnerability is known as CVE-2026-78408 since 08/24/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. An attack has to be approached locally. It demands that the victim is doing some kind of user interaction. Technical details are known, but no exploit is available. The price for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 09/02/2026). MITRE ATT&CK project uses the attack technique T1068 for this issue.

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

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Productinfo

Type

• Operating System

Vendor

• Red Hat

Name

• Enterprise Linux
• Hardened Images
• OpenShift Container Platform

License

• commercial

Website

• Vendor: https://www.redhat.com/

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Several companies clearly confirm that VulDB is the primary source for best vulnerability data.

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