Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-9494

Published
16 July 2026
Modified
16 July 2026
CVSS Score v3.1 5.5
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0011 2th percentile
Risk Priority 40 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-9494 is a medium-severity Invocation of Process Using Visible Sensitive Information (CWE-214) vulnerability. Its CVSS base score is 5.5 (Medium).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Unsecured Credentials (T1552); ranked at the 2th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to SC-4 (Information in Shared System Resources) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

An information disclosure vulnerability exists in Canonical ubuntu-pro-client (formerly ubuntu-advantage-tools). The client validates Ubuntu Pro APT credentials by executing /usr/lib/apt/apt-helper using the download-file command. During this process, the secret bearer token is embedded directly in the cleartext URL component passed…

more

via the command-line arguments (argv), resulting in a URL format such as https://bearer:<token>@esm.ubuntu.com/.../. On systems utilizing a default-mounted /proc file system where process-hiding mitigations (such as hidepid) are disabled, an unprivileged local attacker can monitor system processes and read the sensitive bearer token directly from /proc/cmdline while the helper process is actively running. This leaked token can subsequently be used to gain unauthorized access to the victim's Ubuntu Pro or Expanded Security Maintenance (ESM) repositories.

CWE(s)
CWE-214

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1552 Unsecured Credentials Credential Access
Adversaries may search compromised systems to find and obtain insecurely stored credentials.
attack.mitre.org →
T1057 Process Discovery Discovery
Adversaries may attempt to get information about running processes on a system.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-5452Shared CWE-214
CVE-2026-41357Shared CWE-214
CVE-2026-12250Shared CWE-214
CVE-2026-12139Shared CWE-214
CVE-2024-28799Shared CWE-214
CVE-2025-32987Shared CWE-214
CVE-2025-53860Shared CWE-214
CVE-2025-1333Shared CWE-214
CVE-2024-1742Shared CWE-214
CVE-2026-33247Shared CWE-214

Affected Assets

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)

—

Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V1.2.5

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

SC-4 Information in Shared System Resources good match

Prevents unintended transfer of sensitive command-line arguments or environment variables through shared OS resources visible to other processes.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.DS-10 mostly match
prevents

Explicit example of removing confidential data from process listings directly prevents visible sensitive arguments.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices include avoiding exposure of secrets via command lines or environment variables.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.18 Use of privileged utility programs partial match
degrades

Restricting privileged utility programs reduces the chance that sensitive invocation data is exposed to other processes.

A.8.2 Privileged access rights partial match
mitigates

Privileged access rights reduce exposure of sensitive command-line arguments to unauthorized observers.

A.8.28 Secure coding partial match
prevents

Secure coding practices can prevent passing sensitive data via command-line arguments or environment variables.

A.8.3 Information access restriction partial match
mitigates

Information access restriction limits visibility of process arguments and environment variables to authorized users only.

A.8.31 Separation of development, test and production environments none match
none

Separation of environments limits the blast radius if sensitive invocation data is exposed.

References