A critical vulnerability tracked as CVE-2026-1961 was disclosed in Foreman’s WebSocket proxy, where unsanitized hostname values in lib/ws_proxy.rb are used to build shell commands. A malicious compute resource provider—such as a fake VMware vSphere or Libvirt endpoint—can exploit the flaw to trigger remote code execution on the Foreman server when an administrator opens a VM console. The issue affects Foreman 3.17.0 and earlier and likely older releases because the vulnerable code path reportedly remained unchanged since 2020.
Successful exploitation can execute code as the foreman user, creating a path to steal database credentials and encryption keys and potentially decrypt stored infrastructure secrets for wider compromise of managed environments. The proposed fix replaces shell-interpreted command construction with safer handling using Shellwords.escape, array-based arguments, and Open3.popen3, while Red Hat said the issue was addressed in Red Hat Satellite 6.17 for RHEL 9 and Red Hat Satellite 6.16 for RHEL 8 and RHEL 9 through advisories RHSA-2026:5970 and RHSA-2026:5971.

See affected versions and whether adversaries are exploiting it.
3 events from the most recent confirmed update back to the earliest known activity.
The vulnerable ws_proxy.rb code in Foreman was reported as likely having remained unchanged since 2020, indicating the command injection issue may have affected multiple older versions in addition to 3.17.0 and earlier.
Red Hat stated the issue was addressed in Red Hat Satellite 6.17 for RHEL 9 and Red Hat Satellite 6.16 for RHEL 8 and RHEL 9. The fixes were linked to advisories RHSA-2026:5970 and RHSA-2026:5971.
Houssam Sahli reported a critical command injection vulnerability in Foreman’s WebSocket proxy implementation that can lead to remote code execution when an administrator opens a VM console connected to a malicious compute resource server. The report included proof-of-concept details and a proposed patch using safer command construction and execution.
Vulnerabilities, threat actors, malware, products, organizations, and breaches Mallory has linked to this story.
See whether adversaries are exploiting this yet, and where the affected versions run in your environment.
1 reference tracked. Mallory keeps watching after this page renders.
Map indicators from this story to your assets and identify affected systems in minutes.
Every observed campaign, victim, and pivot linked to actors named in this story.
Malware, exploits, and IOCs connected to the activity described here.
YARA, Sigma, and Snort rules deployed to your SIEM as soon as they’re published.
Get matching new stories delivered to your team as they break — not the next morning.
Ask questions about this story and take action on the answers.