A flaw was found in polkit. When processing input that begins with a null byte, an arithmetic error in the authentication agent helper causes an integer underflow during buffer length calculation, resulting in an out-of-bounds memory read. An attacker capable of supplying crafted input can trigger this flaw, potentially causing an application crash and resulting in a Denial of Service (DoS).
CVE-2026-85498
LOWPre-NVD 3.53.5Trending — 6 sources updated this week
EchelonGraph scoreHIGH confidence
“—” beside the score: it is equal to the CVSS score beside it.
Score 3.5 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: LOW) published 2026-10-29. A secondary CVSS source baseline 3.5; sources differ by 0.0.
Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: EPSS, GitHub Security Advisory, a secondary CVSS source
Also known asEUVD-2026-112679 (ENISA EUVD) · GHSA-cvc4-pw4g-cgpc (GitHub Security Advisories)Source: ENISA EUVD
3.5EG
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorRemediate within your standard update timelines (the SSVC decision on this page).
- Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.3%CVSS: 3.5Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed
A fix is available — apply it.
- CVSS v3
- 3.5
- EG Score
- 3.5LOWhigh confidence
- EG Risk
- 16EG Risk 16/100
EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score. It fuses impact severity (EG Severity, the CVSS base score, never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score) with real-world exploitation and automatability, under weights EchelonGraph set by hand, so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner.
How it’s computed (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)Severity35% × 45%Impact severity (EG Severity): CVSS 3.5 of 10. Never the KEV-floored or EPSS-lifted EG Score.Exploitation0.3% × 40%FIRST EPSS: the 30-day exploitation probability when EchelonGraph scored this CVE.Automatability0% × 15%CISA's SSVC Automatable value: no (Vulnrichment).SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at every mission impact level.Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines. - EPSS PROB
- 0.3%
- EPSS %ILE
- 18th
- KEV
- Not listed
What the EG score is made of (scorer v4.0: the three questions the 0–10 score mixes, published apart · methodology)
The EG score (3.5): severity, escalated by confirmed exploitation. This CVE's 3.5 is its impact severity (EG Severity), not escalated.
- EG Severity
- 3.5 LOWCVSS-B, impact only: no KEV listing, EPSS or EG-KEV tier raises it.GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
- EG Likelihood
- 0.3% within 30 daysSource: FIRST EPSS (model v2026.06.15, score date 2026-10-29). FIRST's exploitation probability, not an EchelonGraph model.
- Confirmed exploitation
- None on record (CISA KEV, EG-KEV Tier 1)Reported apart from the likelihood: an observed fact, not a probability.
- EG Priority
- SSVC Track at medium mission impactTrack at every mission impact level.CISA BOD 26-04: 60 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.Each input and its source: the SSVC and BOD 26-04 blocks below.
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at every mission impact level.
A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.
Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table
BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)60 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.
In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact partial (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it
Published
October 29, 2026
Last Modified
October 30, 2026
References (3)
- secalert@redhathttps://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:66287Vendor Advisory
- secalert@redhathttps://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-85498VDB Entry
- secalert@redhathttps://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2528347Issue Tracking
Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-85498(2)
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 / Ecosystem | Fix (by version range) / Patch | Released | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| ubuntu | polkitd (127-2ubuntu1.1) @ resolute | 2026-10-30 | ubuntu |
| redhat | polkit-main-127-5.1.hum1 | 2026-09-10 | 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.
Weakness Classification(1)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Additional Vendor Advisories
(1)
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.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 20× in last 7d / 20× in last 30d)
Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. 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. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.
- 2026-10-30 16:35 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 18th percentile
- 2026-10-30 02:26 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-30 02:26 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-30 02:26 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-cvc4-pw4g-cgpc · GitHub severity LOW · GitHub CVSS 3.5
- 2026-10-30 01:25 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-30 01:25 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-30 01:25 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-cvc4-pw4g-cgpc · GitHub severity LOW · GitHub CVSS 3.5
- 2026-10-29 16:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.3% · 18th percentile
- 2026-10-29 13:27 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-29 13:27 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-29 13:27 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-cvc4-pw4g-cgpc · GitHub severity LOW · GitHub CVSS 3.5
- 2026-10-29 12:49 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-29 12:49 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-29 12:49 UTCGHSA enrichmentGHSA-cvc4-pw4g-cgpc · GitHub severity LOW · GitHub CVSS 3.5
- 2026-10-29 10:02 UTCENISA EUVD ID recordedEUVD-2026-112679 · Source: ENISA EUVD
- 2026-10-29 09:27 UTCEG score recompute
- 2026-10-29 09:27 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-29 09:13 UTCEG score recomputeFirst assessed: 3.5 LOW
- 2026-10-29 09:13 UTCVendor advisory
- 2026-10-29 09:13 UTCMITRE cvelistV5first tracked
Related CVEs(same CWE)
Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2026-85498?
CVE-2026-85498 is a low-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on October 29, 2026. A flaw was found in polkit. When processing input that begins with a null byte, an arithmetic error in the authentication agent helper causes an integer underflow during buffer length calculation, resulting in an out-of-bounds memory read. An attacker capable of supplying crafted input can trigger…
When was CVE-2026-85498 made public?
CVE-2026-85498 was made public on September 4, 2026: that is the date its CVE record's CNA, Red Hat, Inc., gives for when the vulnerability was made public. The CVE record itself was published on October 29, 2026. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of October 30, 2026; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2026-85498 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-85498 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (18th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-85498?
CVE-2026-85498 has a CVSS base score of 3.5 (a secondary CVSS source that NVD displays; NVD's own analysis pending).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-85498?
A fix for CVE-2026-85498 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory. The vendor advisories EchelonGraph has for CVE-2026-85498 are linked in the Vendor Advisories panel on this page.
Dependency Blast Radius
Explore the affected products and dependency analysis for CVE-2026-85498
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