CVE-2026-72694 is a vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)
Published on August 11, 2026
Mrtg: mrtg daemon symlink-following chown allows local privilege escalation via pid file path manipulation
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.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2026-72694 is exploitable with local system access, and requires small amount of user privileges. This vulnerability is considered to have a low attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have a high impact on confidentiality and integrity, and no impact on availability.
Timeline
Reported to Red Hat.
Made public. 110 days later.
Weakness Type
What is an insecure temporary file Vulnerability?
The software attempts to access a file based on the filename, but it does not properly prevent that filename from identifying a link or shortcut that resolves to an unintended resource.
CVE-2026-72694 has been classified to as an insecure temporary file vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-72694
Want to know whenever a new CVE is published for Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL)? stack.watch will email you.