SystemdApplication · Systemd Project

CVE-2026-29111

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-03-23
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 257.11 / 258.5 or later.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click Patch available

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
systemd, a system and service manager, (as PID 1) hits an assert and freezes execution when an unprivileged IPC API call is made with spurious data. On version v249 and older the effect is not an assert, but stack overwriting, with the attacker controlled content. From version v250 and newer this is not possible as the safety check causes an assert instead. This IPC call was added in v239, so versions older than that are not affected. Versions 260-rc1, 259.2, 258.5, and 257.11 contain patches. No known workarounds are available.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis
How this class of weakness works · CWE-269

Privileges are granted, or fail to be dropped, incorrectly, so an action runs with more power than it should. An attacker who reaches that path inherits the excess privilege. The fix is least-privilege throughout, with explicit, checked transitions whenever privilege changes.

General guidance for the improper privilege management class — the official description and references above are authoritative for this specific CVE. Want a bespoke review and a reviewed fix? Ask our team →

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
SystemdApplication
Affected:>= 239, < 257.11>= 258, < 258.5>= 259, < 259.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

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

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to 257.11 / 258.5 / 259.2 or later
Fixed in 257.11258.5259.2
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

257.11, 258.5, 259.2, or 260-rc1 and later

  1. 1. Identify current systemd version using `systemd --version` or `rpm -q systemd`
  2. 2. Determine which version branch you're on (257.x, 258.x, or 259.x)
  3. 3. For systems on 239 to 257.x: upgrade to systemd >= 257.11 (preferably latest 257.x)
  4. 4. For systems on 258.x: upgrade to systemd >= 258.5 (preferably latest 258.x)
  5. 5. For systems on 259.x: upgrade to systemd >= 259.2 (preferably latest 259.x)
  6. 6. On RHEL/CentOS: use `yum update systemd` or `dnf update systemd`
  7. 7. On Debian/Ubuntu: use `apt-get update && apt-get install systemd`
  8. 8. Reboot the system to ensure the new systemd version is running as PID 1
Caveat Major systemd upgrades can introduce changes to service behavior, systemd unit file syntax, or removed features; test in non-production first

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-29111 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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