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.
Published: 2026-08-11
Score: 7.1 High
EPSS: n/a
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

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Remediation

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

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Advisories

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History

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'}


Subscriptions

Redhat Enterprise Linux
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: redhat

Published:

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

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

Link: CVE-2026-72694

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

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

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

Link: CVE-2026-72694

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Important

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

Links: CVE-2026-72694 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-08-11T10:30:04Z

Weaknesses