CVE-2026-15779 — MEDIUM (6.1)

Vulnerability Description

A flaw was found in samba's pam_winbind. When mkhomedir is enabled, pam_winbind chowns the target account's home directory without validating the path is not a critical system directory such as /. On affected systems, accounts with / as their home directory (a common default for system accounts) can have this triggered not only by root, but by a non-root user holding a narrow sudo delegation to run commands as that account, causing ownership of / to change and resulting in severe denial of service (SSH, sudo, and package-manager failures). The change does not grant write access to / (which ships with restrictive 0555 permissions on RHEL), so the impact is availability loss rather than further privilege escalation.

CVSS Score

6.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:H

Attack Vector

LOCAL

Attack Complexity

LOW

Privileges Required

LOW

User Interaction

NONE

Scope

UNCHANGED

Confidentiality

NONE

Integrity

LOW

Availability

HIGH

Related Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-732

References

FAQ

What is CVE-2026-15779?

CVE-2026-15779 is a vulnerability with a CVSS score of 6.1 (MEDIUM). A flaw was found in samba's pam_winbind. When mkhomedir is enabled, pam_winbind chowns the target account's home directory without validating the path is not a critical system directory such as /. On ...

How severe is CVE-2026-15779?

CVE-2026-15779 has been rated MEDIUM with a CVSS base score of 6.1/10. Review the CVSS metrics above for detailed severity breakdown.

Is there a patch for CVE-2026-15779?

Check the references section above for vendor advisories and patch information. Review vendor security bulletins for remediation guidance.