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HIGH

sh _uid does not drop supplementary groups (incomplete privilege drop)

Published Aug 18, 2026

Description

sh provides Python process launching. Prior to 2.2.4, the _uid option in sh.py performs an incomplete privilege drop on Linux and Unix-like systems. When sh runs from an elevated process and launches a command with _uid set to an unprivileged user, the child changes its UID but can retain the parent process's supplementary groups because the privilege-drop sequence does not fully establish the target user's UID, primary GID, and supplementary groups. The child can therefore retain access to files or resources granted to privileged groups such as root, docker, disk, shadow, or sudo, violating the expected _uid privilege boundary. This issue is fixed in version 2.2.4.

Affected products

Remediation

No remediation recorded yet.

Weaknesses (1)

References (9)

Change history (0)

No recorded changes yet.

Sources
CVE.org / MITRE
Status PUBLISHED
Assigner GitHub_M
Published Aug 18, 2026
Updated Aug 18, 2026
Reserved Jun 15, 2026
CISA Vulnrichment
Updated Aug 18, 2026
NVD
Status Deferred
Modified Sep 18, 2026
Red Hat
Severity Important
Public date Aug 18, 2026
ENISA EUVD
Assigner n/a
Published n/a
Updated n/a
Exploited since n/a
Link n/a
GHSA-Q38V-WP89-2W55