Vulnerability · Published May 11, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-41489Pi-hole: Local privilege escalation via config-controlled path in root-executed service hooks
High 8.8
In plain English
A high-severity incorrect permission assignment in pi-hole from pi-hole. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.1% (higher than 3% of all known vulnerabilities).
Official description
Pi-hole is a DNS sinkhole that protects devices from unwanted content without installing any client-side software. From 6.0 to before Core 6.4.2 and FTL 6.6.1, two shell scripts executed as root by systemd (pihole-FTL-prestart.sh and pihole-FTL-poststop.sh) read the files.pid path from this config without validation and use it in privileged file operations (install and rm -f). By writing an arbitrary path into files.pid, an attacker with pihole privilege can cause root to delete and then recreate any file on the system outside the ProtectSystem=full-restricted directories, gaining write access to it. On a default Pi-hole installation this yields local privilege escalation to root via SSH authorized keys manipulation. If /root/.ssh/authorized_keys does not exist (default on fresh installs), only ExecStartPre is required. If the file exists, ExecStopPost deletes it first, and the same restart triggers both hooks in sequence. This vulnerability is fixed in Core 6.4.2 and FTL 6.6.1.
Affected products (as reported)
Weakness: CWE-732, CWE-269, CWE-15 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
- https://github.com/pi-hole/pi-hole/security/advisories/GHSA-6w8x-p785-6pm4 x_refsource_CONFIRM