systemd before 247 does not adequately block local privilege escalation for some Sudo configurations, e.g., plausible sudoers files in which the "systemctl status" command may be executed. Specifically, systemd does not set LESSSECURE to 1, and thus other programs may be launched from the less program. This presents a substantial security risk when running systemctl from Sudo, because less executes as root when the terminal size is too small to show the complete systemctl output.
CVE-2023-26604
Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2023-03-03. NVD baseline CVSS 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 7.8
- EG Score
- 7.8(medium)
- EG Risk
- 51(Track*)EG Risk 51/100SSVC: Track*
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).
How it’s computedSeverity78% × 45%Exploitation40% × 40%Automatability0% × 15%Action: Watch closely — could escalate to Attend. - EPSS PROB
- 1%
- EPSS %ILE
- 61%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
March 3, 2023
Last Modified
June 20, 2025
References (12)
- cve@mitrehttp://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174130/systemd-246-Local-Root-Privilege-Escalation.html
- cve@mitrehttps://blog.compass-security.com/2012/10/dangerous-sudoers-entries-part-2-insecure-functionality/
- cve@mitrehttps://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/main/NEWS#L4335-L4340
- cve@mitrehttps://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/03/msg00032.html
- cve@mitrehttps://medium.com/%40zenmoviefornotification/saidov-maxim-cve-2023-26604-c1232a526ba7
- cve@mitrehttps://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230505-0009/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108http://packetstormsecurity.com/files/174130/systemd-246-Local-Root-Privilege-Escalation.html
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://blog.compass-security.com/2012/10/dangerous-sudoers-entries-part-2-insecure-functionality/
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://github.com/systemd/systemd/blob/main/NEWS#L4335-L4340
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2023/03/msg00032.html
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://medium.com/%40zenmoviefornotification/saidov-maxim-cve-2023-26604-c1232a526ba7
- af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230505-0009/
Vendor Advisories for CVE-2023-26604(1)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
Patch Availability(3)
| Vendor / Ecosystem | Fixed in / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| redhat | systemd-0:219-78.el7_9.11 | 2024-10-07 | redhat |
| redhat | systemd-0:239-58.el8_6.13 | 2024-03-05 | redhat |
| redhat | systemd-0:239-74.el8_8.2 | 2023-06-27 | redhat |
Patches are aggregated from vendor advisories (Red Hat, Microsoft, Cisco, GitHub) and package ecosystems (OSV, GHSA). Multiple rows for the same upstream release have been deduplicated.
Affected Packages
(5 across 5 ecosystems)
Debian:10(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| systemd | 241-5 ... 241-7~deb10u8 (10 versions) | 241-7~deb10u9 | — |
Debian:11(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| systemd | — | 247.1-2 | — |
Debian:12(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| systemd | — | 247.1-2 | — |
Debian:13(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| systemd | — | 247.1-2 | — |
Debian:14(1)
| Package | Vulnerable range | Fixed in | Dependents |
|---|---|---|---|
| systemd | — | 247.1-2 | — |
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(3)
Vendors that published advisories for this CVE beyond the curated set above. Broader coverage but minimal per-row detail — click through for the original advisory.
- Microsoft MSRCCVE-2023-266042023-03-11
systemd before 247 does not adequately block local privilege escalation for some Sudo configurations e.g. plausible sudoers files in which the "systemctl status" command may be executed. Specifically systemd does not set LESSSECURE to 1 and thus other programs may be launched from the less program. This presents a substantial security risk when running systemctl from Sudo because less executes as root when the terminal size is too small to show the complete systemctl output.
- Red HatRHSA-2023:3837MODERATE2023-03-03
RHSA-2023:3837 — Moderate
- Red HatRHSA-2024:1105MODERATE2023-03-03
RHSA-2024:1105 — Moderate
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 6× in last 7d / 33× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
Showing the most recent 100 of 149 total refreshes for this CVE.
- 2026-08-30 01:19 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-28 21:38 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-27 14:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-26 14:43 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-25 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-24 14:14 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-23 00:17 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-21 23:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-20 22:53 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-19 17:02 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-18 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-18 01:29 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-17 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-16 14:53 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-16 02:12 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-15 01:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-13 21:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-12 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-11 13:39 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-09 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-08 16:34 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-07 16:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-06 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-05 19:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-05 19:15 UTCEPSS rescore
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- 2026-08-04 15:07 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-04 10:35 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-03 10:34 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-02 20:27 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-08-02 02:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-02 02:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-01 04:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-08-01 04:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-30 16:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-30 16:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-30 01:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-30 01:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-28 15:34 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-28 15:34 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-27 14:10 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-26 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-25 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-24 14:15 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 14:16 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-23 02:20 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 23:08 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-22 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-21 15:23 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-20 17:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 14:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 14:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-19 02:27 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 10:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-18 10:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 17:01 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-16 04:23 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-07-15 16:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 16:56 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 01:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-15 01:58 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 22:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 06:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-13 06:11 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-12 05:45 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-11 08:25 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 19:08 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-09 19:08 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-08 15:13 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-07 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-06 16:26 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-05 02:28 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-04 06:29 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-02 16:59 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-07-01 15:04 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-30 23:21 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:54 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-28 04:04 UTCOSV refresh
- 2026-06-27 03:07 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-24 14:03 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-23 21:31 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-22 14:24 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 14:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 14:55 UTCEPSS rescore
- 2026-06-21 01:58 UTCEPSS rescore
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2023-26604?
When was CVE-2023-26604 disclosed?
Is CVE-2023-26604 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2023-26604?
How do I remediate CVE-2023-26604?
Dependency Blast Radius
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