Bug 2451155 (CVE-2026-4802)

Summary: CVE-2026-4802 cockpit: Cockpit: Arbitrary command execution via crafted links in system logs UI
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: high    
Version: unspecifiedCC: agk, duffy, jvanderwaa, rhel-process-autobot, security-response-team, watson-tool-maintainers
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
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Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in Cockpit. This vulnerability allows a remote attacker to achieve arbitrary command execution on the host by exploiting unsanitized user-controlled parameters within crafted links in the system logs user interface (UI). An attacker can inject shell metacharacters and command substitutions into these parameters, leading to the execution of arbitrary shell commands on the affected system. This could result in a complete system compromise.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-03-25 10:32:45 UTC 
vulnerability in Cockpit’s system logs UI code (pkg/systemd/logsJournal.jsx, loadServiceFilters() path). The flaw is caused by building a command from an array, joining it into a single string with only space escaping, and then executing it via /bin/bash -ec. User-controlled parameters from the logs page (e.g., #/system/logs#/?since=...) reach this code path unsanitized and can include shell metacharacters such as command substitution ($(...)). A crafted link can therefore inject arbitrary shell commands into the constructed pipeline (set -o pipefail; ... | grep ... | sort -u) and execute them on the host. The provided PoC demonstrates writing the output of id into /tmp/cockpit-rce-proof, confirming code execution in the target environment.