Copyright © 2012 Red Hat, Inc. All rights reserved. Important 2026-07-30T00:00:00 PCP: PCP: Privilege escalation to root via linux_sockets PMDA vulnerability 8.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H CWE-403

A flaw in the PCP linux_sockets module exposes an unsecured internal connection. An attacker with initial code execution can exploit this to escalate privileges and execute arbitrary commands as root.

This is an Important privilege escalation vulnerability in PCP where an attacker can escalate privileges from the `pcp` user to `root`. This flaw requires a prior `linux_sockets` command injection vulnerability and a non-default configuration where the `linux_sockets` PMDA is loaded as a DSO in PMCD. Exploitation can occur locally or remotely depending on the `pmcd` and `pmproxy` configurations. Red Hat would like to thank Francisco Alisson Bezerra (TIM Security Red Team Research, TIM S.p.A), Lucas Gabriel Alves (TIM Security Red Team Research, TIM S.p.A), and Massimiliano Brolli (TIM Security Red Team Research, TIM S.p.A) for reporting this issue. To mitigate this vulnerability, ensure that the `linux_sockets` PMDA is not configured to load as a Dynamic Shared Object (DSO) within PMCD. The default configuration for this PMDA is daemon mode, which is not affected by this flaw. Review your `pmcd.conf` file to confirm the `linux_sockets` PMDA is not loaded as a DSO. If changes are made to `pmcd.conf`, a restart of the `pmcd` service is required for them to take effect. Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Affected pcp Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Out of support scope pcp Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Affected pcp Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Affected pcp Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Affected pcp Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 Not affected rhcos https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-16526 https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-16526