CVE-2026-4631
Description
Cockpit's remote login feature passes user-supplied hostnames and usernames from the web interface to the SSH client without validation or sanitization. An attacker with network access to the Cockpit web service can craft a single HTTP request to the login endpoint that injects malicious SSH options or shell commands, achieving code execution on the Cockpit host without valid credentials. The injection occurs during the authentication flow before any credential verification takes place, meaning no login is required to exploit the vulnerability.
Statement
Two configuration factors determine whether a Cockpit installation is vulnerable to remote code execution.
First, the hostname injection attack (injecting SSH options like -oProxyCommand via the URL path) is blocked by OpenSSH 9.6 and later, which validates hostnames and rejects shell metacharacters before establishing a connection. Systems running Cockpit 327 or later with an OpenSSH version older than 9.6 are vulnerable to unauthenticated remote code execution in the default configuration. Systems with OpenSSH 9.6 or later are not vulnerable to this attack path.
Second, the username injection attack (injecting shell commands via the SSH username) requires that the system's SSH configuration uses the %r (remote username) token within a Match exec directive. This is not part of any default OpenSSH configuration. Systems that do not use %r in a Match exec directive are not vulnerable to this attack path, regardless of OpenSSH version.
Both attack paths require network access to the Cockpit web service (port 9090 by default) and that remote host login is enabled, which is the default Cockpit configuration.
This security issue was introduced in Cockpit version 327. Due to that, the cockpit packages as shipped with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8, and Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 before release 9.6, were not affected by this flaw.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 9.8 | N/A | 9.8 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Unchanged | N/A | Unchanged |
| Confidentiality | High | N/A | High |
| Integrity Impact | High | N/A | High |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality,Integrity,Availability,Non-Repudiation
Technical Impact: Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart; Read Files or Directories; Modify Files or Directories; Read Application Data; Modify Application Data; Hide Activities
Attackers could execute unauthorized operating system commands, which could then be used to disable the product, or read and modify data for which the attacker does not have permissions to access directly. Since the targeted application is directly executing the commands instead of the attacker, any malicious activities may appear to come from the application or the application's owner.
Acknowledgements
Red Hat would like to thank Florian Kohnhäuser for reporting this issue.
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