🛡️ CVE-2026-16445 on Debian — dracut

⚪ Unknown ✅ No Known Exploit OSV

N/A

CVSS Score

0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

A flaw was found in dracut. A remote attacker on the adjacent network can exploit this vulnerability by providing specially crafted DHCP options, such as a malicious root-path, next-server, or bootfile name, to a system using dracut's NetworkManager-based initrd network module. These options are improperly handled and written into a temporary shell script without proper escaping, leading to command injection. This allows the attacker to achieve root code execution within the initramfs during system boot.

Distribution advisory

This page covers CVE-2026-16445 as tracked by Debian, for the package dracut. The fix is available in version 112-1; earlier versions remain affected.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached from an adjacent network, attack complexity is high, an attacker needs no privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality high, integrity high, availability high.

Weakness class

DEBIAN-CVE-2026-16445 is classified as CWE-78: OS Command Injection. Untrusted input reaches a shell command without neutralisation, so an attacker can run arbitrary operating system commands.

Affected software

DEBIAN-CVE-2026-16445 is recorded against 1 package.

dracut (fixed in 112-1)

Timeline and source

Published on 21 July 2026 and last revised on 8 August 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. Record sourced from OSV.

References

security-tracker.debian.org (Advisory)

Details

Severity Unknown

CVSS Score N/A

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

CWE N/A

Public Exploit ✅ No

Source OSV

Published 2026-07-21

Updated 2026-08-12

Modified 2026-08-08

Fix URL N/A

Affected Packages

Software	From version	Fixed in
dracut	—	112-1

References

ADVISORY https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-16445

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