CVE-2026-72693

HIGHPre-NVD 7.87.8—
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence

Score 7.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2026-08-11. a secondary CVSS source baseline 7.8; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, secondary
Trending — 4 sources updated this week
7.8EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0%CVSS: 7.8Exploit: None knownExposed: 0

A fix is available — apply it.

openvt -u is intended to identify the owner of the current VT and then execute login as that user from a privileged context. In the documented kbrequest/init usage, the ownership test in authenticate_user() relies on stat("/proc//fd/0"). stat() on /proc//fd/0 follows the symlink to the underlying TTY device node. As a result, buf.st_uid reflects the owner of the TTY node rather than the owner of the process holding the file descriptor. If the TTY owner returns to root or the getty owner after logout while an unprivileged process still has fd 0 attached to that TTY, the check can incorrectly treat that process as belonging to the privileged console owner. Once that check succeeds, the -u path executes a passwordless login as the selected user. In the documented kbrequest/init deployment using openvt -us, this can result in passwordless login -f root on the spawned VT. This report establishes that privilege escalation path for that documented deployment; it does not claim equivalent reachability for deployments that do not use openvt -u from a privileged kbrequest/init path.

CVSS v3
7.8
EG Score
7.8(high)
EG Risk
35(Track)
EG Risk 35/100SSVC: 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
Severity78% × 45%
Exploitation0% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
0%
EPSS %ILE
1%
KEV
Not listed

Published

August 11, 2026

Last Modified

August 20, 2026

Advisory Details (2)

Auto-updated Aug 11, 2026
Patch available. Sources: redhat.
redhat

2462115 – (CVE-2026-72693) CVE-2026-72693 kbd: Local privilege escalation in openvt via incorrect process owner verification allowing passwordless root login

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2462115
redhat Patch Available

CVE-2026-72693 - Red Hat Customer Portal

Affected: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 or OpenShift Container Platform 4, is affected by this vulnerability and a fix may be released to a

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-72693

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-72693(2)

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

Patch Availability(1)

Vendor / EcosystemFixed in / PatchReleasedSource
redhatkbd-main-2.10.0-2.hum12026-07-16redhat

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.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 47× in last 7d / 63× 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. 2026-08-20 22:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-08-20 21:22 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-08-20 21:22 UTCVendor advisory
  4. 2026-08-20 21:22 UTCGHSA enrichment
  5. 2026-08-20 20:57 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-08-20 20:57 UTCVendor advisory
  7. 2026-08-20 20:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-08-20 12:41 UTCVendor advisory
  9. 2026-08-20 12:41 UTCGHSA enrichment
  10. 2026-08-20 01:27 UTCVendor advisory
  11. 2026-08-20 01:27 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-08-19 14:12 UTCVendor advisory
  13. 2026-08-19 14:12 UTCGHSA enrichment
  14. 2026-08-19 02:57 UTCVendor advisory
  15. 2026-08-19 02:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-08-18 15:17 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-08-18 15:17 UTCVendor advisory
  18. 2026-08-18 15:17 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-08-18 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-08-18 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-08-18 02:25 UTCVendor advisory
  22. 2026-08-18 02:25 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-08-17 15:10 UTCEG score recompute
  24. 2026-08-17 15:10 UTCVendor advisory
  25. 2026-08-17 15:10 UTCGHSA enrichment
Show 38 more
  1. 2026-08-17 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-08-17 03:55 UTCVendor advisory
  3. 2026-08-17 03:55 UTCGHSA enrichment
  4. 2026-08-16 16:40 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-08-16 16:40 UTCVendor advisory
  6. 2026-08-16 16:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
  7. 2026-08-16 14:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-08-16 14:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-08-16 05:20 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-08-16 05:20 UTCVendor advisory
  11. 2026-08-16 05:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-08-16 02:15 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-08-15 18:06 UTCVendor advisory
  14. 2026-08-15 18:06 UTCGHSA enrichment
  15. 2026-08-15 06:51 UTCEG score recompute
  16. 2026-08-15 06:51 UTCVendor advisory
  17. 2026-08-15 06:51 UTCGHSA enrichment
  18. 2026-08-15 01:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-08-14 19:19 UTCVendor advisory
  20. 2026-08-14 19:19 UTCGHSA enrichment
  21. 2026-08-14 10:59 UTCVendor advisory
  22. 2026-08-14 10:59 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-08-13 23:45 UTCEG score recompute
  24. 2026-08-13 23:45 UTCGHSA enrichment
  25. 2026-08-13 23:04 UTCEG score recompute
  26. 2026-08-13 23:04 UTCGHSA enrichment
  27. 2026-08-13 22:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-08-13 15:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  29. 2026-08-13 04:23 UTCGHSA enrichment
  30. 2026-08-12 17:09 UTCGHSA enrichment
  31. 2026-08-12 05:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
  32. 2026-08-11 18:39 UTCEG score recompute
  33. 2026-08-11 18:39 UTCGHSA enrichment
  34. 2026-08-11 18:14 UTCEG score recompute
  35. 2026-08-11 18:13 UTCGHSA enrichment
  36. 2026-08-11 09:26 UTCEG score recompute
  37. 2026-08-11 08:49 UTCEG score recompute
  38. 2026-08-11 08:48 UTCMITRE cvelistV5first tracked

Related CVEs(same vendor + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2026-72693?
CVE-2026-72693 is a high vulnerability published on August 11, 2026. openvt -u is intended to identify the owner of the current VT and then execute login as that user from a privileged context. In the documented kbrequest/init usage, the ownership test in authenticateuser() relies on stat("/proc/<pid>/fd/0"). stat() on /proc/<pid>/fd/0 follows the symlink to the…
When was CVE-2026-72693 disclosed?
CVE-2026-72693 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on August 11, 2026, with the most recent update on August 20, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2026-72693 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-72693 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 98.7% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-72693?
CVE-2026-72693 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.8 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-72693?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2026-72693, 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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