CVE-2026-16445

HIGHPre-NVD 7.57.5—
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

Score 7.5 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2026-07-21. a secondary CVSS source baseline 7.5; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, secondary
Trending — 4 sources updated this week
7.5EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 1%CVSS: 7.5Exploit: None knownExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

A flaw was found in dracut. A remote attacker on the adjacent network can exploit this vulnerability by providing specially crafted DHCP options, such as a malicious root-path, next-server, or bootfile name, to a system using dracut's NetworkManager-based initrd network module. These options are improperly handled and written into a temporary shell script without proper escaping, leading to command injection. This allows the attacker to achieve root code execution within the initramfs during system boot.

CVSS v3
7.5
EG Score
7.5(high)
EG Risk
34(Track)
EG Risk 34/100SSVC: 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 computed
Severity75% × 45%
Exploitation1% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
1%
EPSS %ILE
59%
KEV
Not listed

Published

July 21, 2026

Last Modified

July 22, 2026

Advisory Details (5)

Auto-updated Jul 21, 2026
Patch available. Sources: redhat, github_commit.
github_commit Patch Available

commit e509c638e6 (dracutdevs/dracut)

Patch available: dracutdevs/dracut 056 (contains commit e509c638e6)

https://github.com/dracutdevs/dracut/commit/e509c638e6
redhat

2503147 – (CVE-2026-16445) CVE-2026-16445 dracut: dracut: Root code execution via DHCP options command injection in NetworkManager initrd module

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2503147
redhat Patch Available

2459963 – (CVE-2026-6893) CVE-2026-6893 dracut: dracut: Root code execution via DHCP options command injection

Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2459963
redhat Patch Available

cve-details

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-16445
redhat Patch Available

Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.

https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:26534

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-16445(1)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Patch Availability(2)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
redhatdracut-main-109-7.hum12026-07-16redhat
redhatdracut-0:049-244.git20260529.el8_102026-06-17redhat

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.

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

All Vendor Advisories

(2)

Every vendor that published an advisory referencing this CVE — pulled from our cve_vendor_advisories aggregation. Click any row for the vendor's original advisory page.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 29× 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.

  1. 2026-07-29 04:52 UTCVendor advisory
  2. 2026-07-29 04:52 UTCGHSA enrichment
  3. 2026-07-28 17:49 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-07-28 17:49 UTCVendor advisory
  5. 2026-07-28 17:49 UTCGHSA enrichment
  6. 2026-07-28 06:47 UTCVendor advisory
  7. 2026-07-28 06:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-07-27 19:44 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-07-27 19:44 UTCVendor advisory
  10. 2026-07-27 19:44 UTCGHSA enrichment
  11. 2026-07-27 14:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-27 08:39 UTCVendor advisory
  13. 2026-07-27 08:39 UTCGHSA enrichment
  14. 2026-07-26 21:38 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-07-26 21:38 UTCVendor advisory
  16. 2026-07-26 21:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  17. 2026-07-26 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-07-26 14:54 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-26 10:32 UTCEG score recompute
  20. 2026-07-26 10:32 UTCGHSA enrichment
  21. 2026-07-25 14:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-25 14:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-24 14:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-23 14:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-23 14:18 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 8 more
  1. 2026-07-23 03:06 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-07-22 23:09 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-07-22 23:09 UTCVendor advisory
  4. 2026-07-22 23:09 UTCGHSA enrichment
  5. 2026-07-22 14:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-21 14:51 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-07-21 13:13 UTCEG score recompute
  8. 2026-07-21 13:12 UTCMITRE cvelistV5first tracked

Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2026-16445?
CVE-2026-16445 is a high vulnerability published on July 21, 2026. A flaw was found in dracut. A remote attacker on the adjacent network can exploit this vulnerability by providing specially crafted DHCP options, such as a malicious root-path, next-server, or bootfile name, to a system using dracut's NetworkManager-based initrd network module. These options are…
When was CVE-2026-16445 disclosed?
CVE-2026-16445 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on July 21, 2026, with the most recent update on July 22, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2026-16445 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-16445 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 1% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 41.1% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-16445?
CVE-2026-16445 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.5 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-16445?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2026-16445, 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

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