A flaw was found in MRTG. When the MRTG daemon is started as a root user and subsequently drops privileges, a local, low-privileged attacker can exploit a symbolic link (symlink) following vulnerability. By influencing or pre-placing a symlink in the process ID (PID) file path, the attacker can trick the root process into changing the ownership of an arbitrary existing file to the daemon user. This can lead to local privilege escalation, allowing unauthorized access to or modification of sensitive files.
History

Wed, 09 Sep 2026 09:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8 cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:8::appstream
References

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 20:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9 cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream
References

Thu, 20 Aug 2026 17:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10 cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10.2
References

Wed, 12 Aug 2026 16:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Tue, 11 Aug 2026 15:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Mrtgconfig
Mrtgconfig mrtg
Vendors & Products Mrtgconfig
Mrtgconfig mrtg

Tue, 11 Aug 2026 12:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

threat_severity

Important


Tue, 11 Aug 2026 09:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A flaw was found in MRTG. When the MRTG daemon is started as a root user and subsequently drops privileges, a local, low-privileged attacker can exploit a symbolic link (symlink) following vulnerability. By influencing or pre-placing a symlink in the process ID (PID) file path, the attacker can trick the root process into changing the ownership of an arbitrary existing file to the daemon user. This can lead to local privilege escalation, allowing unauthorized access to or modification of sensitive files.
Title Mrtg: mrtg daemon symlink-following chown allows local privilege escalation via pid file path manipulation
First Time appeared Redhat
Redhat enterprise Linux
Weaknesses CWE-59
CPEs cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9
Vendors & Products Redhat
Redhat enterprise Linux
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N'}


cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: redhat

Published: 2026-08-11T08:37:55.392Z

Updated: 2026-09-09T09:12:20.115Z

Reserved: 2026-08-10T12:35:16.746Z

Link: CVE-2026-72694

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-08-12T15:35:34.803Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Awaiting Analysis

Published: 2026-08-11T09:17:14.493

Modified: 2026-09-09T10:20:53.097

Link: CVE-2026-72694

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Important

Publid Date: 2026-08-11T07:28:48Z

Links: CVE-2026-72694 - Bugzilla