CVE-2026-91838Networkmanager-sstp: networkmanager-sstp: local privilege escalation to root via shell injection in vpn profile fields
- 7.8HighCVSS base score
- 0.10%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 99% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- YesPublic exploitsa reference or SSVC says so
Description
A flaw was found in NetworkManager-sstp, the SSTP VPN plugin for NetworkManager. A local unprivileged user can exploit this vulnerability by embedding special characters, known as shell metacharacters, into VPN connection profile fields such as CA certificate or proxy settings. These unescaped characters are then processed by the `pppd` daemon, which runs with root privileges, allowing the attacker to execute arbitrary commands with elevated permissions when a malicious VPN connection is activated.
Public exploit
An exploit or proof of concept is public: anyone can try it against an unpatched system. A reference of the record is tagged as an exploit.
Show the exploits1
References tagged exploit1 reference
Timeline
ID reserved
By fedora
- 10 days later
· 10 days later
Published
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| fedoraCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Deferred | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.10% · top 99% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.8.
Affected products
- affected < *
What to do
Workaround: The vulnerability requires a local unprivileged user to activate a malicious VPN connection. If the NetworkManager-sstp package is not required, removing it will eliminate the attack vector. To remove the `NetworkManager-sstp` package: `sudo dnf remove NetworkManager-sstp` This action may impact functionality that relies on SSTP VPN connections.
References
References3
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-91838 (opens in a new tab)vdb-entryx_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2533637 (opens in a new tab)issue-trackingx_refsource_REDHAT
- https://gitlab.gnome.org/GNOME/network-manager-sstp/-/work_items/67 (opens in a new tab)exploit
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-87248 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-91838)Record last updated .