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Pi HoleApplication

CVE-2026-50130

HIGH · 8.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-07-14
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 6.4.3 or later.
See remediation →
90/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Public exploit Zero-click Patch available 5 weeks old

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
Pi-hole is a DNS sinkhole that protects devices from unwanted content without installing any client-side software. From 6.0 to 6.4.2, a user with code execution as the unprivileged pihole user can escalate to root by replacing /etc/pihole/logrotate. The replacement is laundered to root:root ownership by pihole-FTL-prestart.sh and then parsed as root by the daily pihole flush cron, executing firstaction shell as uid 0. This issue is fixed in version 6.4.3.

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 · high confidence

A local privilege escalation vulnerability in Pi-hole allows an attacker with code execution as the unprivileged pihole user to gain root access by replacing /etc/pihole/logrotate. The file ownership gets laundered to root:root by pihole-FTL-prestart.sh, then the daily pihole flush cron executes it as root, achieving arbitrary code execution as uid 0.

MitigationUpgrade to Pi-hole version 6.4.3 or later. Until patched, monitor /etc/pihole/logrotate for unauthorized modifications and limit access to the pihole user account.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

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
Pi HoleApplication
Affected:>= 6.0, < 6.4.3

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
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify installed Pi-hole version
    Run `pihole -v` or check `/etc/pihole/versions` for the Pi-hole version number
    Affected if Version is below 6.4.3 (e.g., 6.4.2, 6.4.1, 6.x versions before 6.4.3)
  2. Verify pihole-FTL-prestart.sh exists
    Check if file /etc/pihole/pihole-FTL-prestart.sh exists and examine its contents for logic that changes ownership of /etc/pihole/logrotate to root
    Affected if The script exists and contains code that changes ownership of /etc/pihole/logrotate to root:root without validation
  3. Inspect logrotate file permissions and ownership
    Run `ls -la /etc/pihole/logrotate` to see current ownership and permissions
    Affected if File is owned by root:root OR is writable by the pihole user (indicating potential tampering)
  4. Check daily flush cron job
    Run `crontab -l` or check /etc/cron.d/pihole for the daily flush job that executes /etc/pihole/logrotate
    Affected if A cron job runs /etc/pihole/logrotate as root on a daily schedule
  5. Determine if pihole user has interactive access
    Check /etc/passwd for pihole user entry and verify if the user can execute commands (e.g., via `sudo -l -U pihole` if accessible)
    Affected if The pihole user exists and has ability to write files to /etc/pihole/ directory

Environment is affected if Pi-hole version is below 6.4.3 AND the pihole user can write to /etc/pihole/logrotate while a cron job executes that file as root.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 6.4.3 or later
Fixed in 6.4.3
Vendor patch github.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade to Pi-hole version 6.4.3 or later. Until patched, monitor /etc/pihole/logrotate for unauthorized modifications and limit access to the pihole user account.

Recommended fix High confidence

6.4.3

  1. Upgrade Pi-hole to version 6.4.3 or later
  2. After upgrading, verify the installation using 'pihole -v' to confirm the version

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

Fix this in Pi Hole Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation1.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
6.0 hours of engineering $1,060
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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-2026-50130 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data