CVE-2026-6970

authd Denial of Service and Local Privilege Escalation

Published Apr 27, 2026 CVSS 4.0 · 7.3 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
authd prior to version 0.6.4 contains a logic error in primary group ID assignment that can lead to local privilege escalation. When a user's primary group ID (GID) differs from their UID, either because the account was created with authd prior to version 0.5.4 or because the primary group was manually changed via the `authctl group set-gid` command, and the user's identity provider record is updated, authd incorrectly resets the user's primary group ID to their UID upon next login. This causes newly created files and directories to be owned by the wrong group, causing denial of service issues, and potentially granting unintended access to other local users and allowing local privilege escalation.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-fg3j-5w9g-hmg7 authd: Primary group ID is incorrectly set to value of UID
Ubuntu USN Ubuntu USN USN-8212-1 authd vulnerability
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Canonical
Canonical authd
Vendors & Products Canonical
Canonical authd
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description authd prior to version 0.6.4 contains a logic error in primary group ID assignment that can lead to local privilege escalation. When a user's primary group ID (GID) differs from their UID, either because the account was created with authd prior to version 0.5.4 or because the primary group was manually changed via the `authctl group set-gid` command, and the user's identity provider record is updated, authd incorrectly resets the user's primary group ID to their UID upon next login. This causes newly created files and directories to be owned by the wrong group, causing denial of service issues, and potentially granting unintended access to other local users and allowing local privilege escalation.
Title authd Denial of Service and Local Privilege Escalation
Weaknesses CWE-842
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 7.3, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
canonical
Published
Updated
Apr 27, 2026, 4:17 PM
Reserved
Apr 24, 2026, 4:52 PM
Status
Deferred
Published
Apr 27, 2026, 4:16 PM
Modified
Oct 26, 2026, 10:10 PM