Analysis and contextual insights are available on OpenCVE Cloud.
Vendor Workaround
To mitigate this issue, avoid starting the MRTG daemon as root with the `--daemon` option. Instead, configure MRTG to run directly as an unprivileged user. If root startup is strictly necessary, ensure that the PID file and its directory are owned by root and are not writable by unprivileged users, and prevent untrusted users from influencing the `--pid-file` path. Changes to service configuration may require a service restart to take effect.
Tracking
Sign in to view the affected projects.
No advisories yet.
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
|
Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: redhat
Published:
Updated: 2026-08-11T08:37:55.392Z
Reserved: 2026-08-10T12:35:16.746Z
Link: CVE-2026-72694
No data.
No data.
No data.
OpenCVE Enrichment
Updated: 2026-08-11T10:30:04Z