A flaw was found in CRI-O. The fix for a previous vulnerability (CVE-2022-4318) was incorrect, allowing it to be bypassed. An attacker capable of setting environment variables on a container can inject a newline character into the HOME environment variable. This issue allows the addition of arbitrary lines into /etc/passwd by use of a specially crafted environment variable.
CVE-2026-15809
HIGHPre-NVD 7.87.8—Trending — 3 sources updated this week
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence
Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2026-07-15. a secondary CVSS source baseline 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.
Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: ghsa, secondary
7.8
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: —CVSS: 7.8Exploit: NoneExposed: 0
No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.
- CVSS v3
- 7.8
- EG Score
- 7.8(high)
- EPSS
- —
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
July 15, 2026
Last Modified
July 15, 2026
Advisory Details (5)
Auto-updated Jul 15, 2026Patch available. Sources: github_pr, redhat.
github_pr
[release-1.25] server: fail if HOME variable has a newline
Fix merged in cri-o/cri-o PR #6524 on 2023-02-22 — awaiting tagged release
https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/pull/6524github_pr Patch Available
server: fail if HOME variable has a newline
Patch available: cri-o/cri-o v1.32.10 (PR #6450 merged 2022-12-20)
https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o/pull/6450redhat
2500846 – (CVE-2026-15809) CVE-2026-15809 github.com/cri-o/cri-o: Fix Bypass for CVE-2022-4318 — /etc/passwd Injection via HOME env
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2500846Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-15809(1)
These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 4× in last 7d / 4× 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.
- 2026-07-16 01:31 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-16 01:31 UTCGHSA enrichment
- 2026-07-15 12:54 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-07-15 12:54 UTCMITRE cvelistV5first tracked
Related CVEs(same CWE)
Same CWE
10 shownCWE-116
Frequently asked(4)
What is CVE-2026-15809?
CVE-2026-15809 is a high vulnerability published on July 15, 2026. A flaw was found in CRI-O. The fix for a previous vulnerability (CVE-2022-4318) was incorrect, allowing it to be bypassed. An attacker capable of setting environment variables on a container can inject a newline character into the HOME environment variable. This issue allows the addition of…
When was CVE-2026-15809 disclosed?
CVE-2026-15809 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on July 15, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-15809?
CVE-2026-15809 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-15809?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2026-15809, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.
Dependency Blast Radius
Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2026-15809
Is Your Infrastructure Affected by CVE-2026-15809?
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