CVE-2026-26422: clash-verge-service-ipc Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

Technical summary

CVE-2026-26422 stems from improper file or resource permission settings (CWE-732) in the IPC mechanism of clash-verge-service-ipc. The service exposes a world-reachable IPC endpoint without enforcing adequate access controls, allowing any unprivileged local process to communicate with and manipulate the service. This enables a local privilege escalation attack path where a low-privileged user can interact with the IPC interface to execute arbitrary operations with the service's elevated privileges. The vulnerability affects all versions before 2.3.0.

Business impact

Local privilege escalation vulnerabilities like this one pose a significant risk in environments where multiple users or processes operate on shared systems, including development machines, CI/CD agents, and shared cloud instances. An attacker who gains initial low-privilege access—via a compromised application, supply chain compromise, or insider access—can weaponize this flaw to obtain root or system-level privileges. This can lead to complete system compromise, lateral movement to other systems, data exfiltration, or deployment of persistent backdoors. Organizations using clash-verge-service-ipc in security-sensitive contexts should treat this as a high-priority remediation target.

Affected systems

Any deployment of clash-verge-service-ipc prior to version 2.3.0 is vulnerable. This includes development workstations, CI/CD pipeline agents, containerized environments, and production systems that rely on this component. The vulnerability requires local access to the affected machine to exploit, so risk is highest in multi-tenant or multi-user environments where privilege boundaries are important.

Exploitability

Exploitation is straightforward from a technical perspective: any local user or process can interact with the exposed IPC endpoint without authentication or privilege checks. No complex techniques, user interaction, or race conditions are required. The low attack complexity (AC:L) and lack of privilege requirements (PR:N) mean an attacker needs only to be present on the system to attempt exploitation. However, the attack is local-only (AV:L), so remote exploitation is not possible. The lack of current KEV status does not indicate a low threat—it reflects the vulnerability's relative newness or limited confirmed active exploitation at the time of data collection.

Remediation

Update clash-verge-service-ipc to version 2.3.0 or later, which remediates the IPC endpoint permissions issue. Verify the update against the official vendor advisory to confirm the exact patch version and any additional changes. Organizations unable to patch immediately should implement compensating controls: restrict local access to systems running vulnerable versions, isolate them from untrusted users or processes, and monitor IPC endpoint usage for suspicious activity.

Patch guidance

Upgrade clash-verge-service-ipc to 2.3.0 or newer. Check the official release notes and security advisory from the maintainers to confirm this version includes the privilege escalation fix and to identify any breaking changes or additional security improvements. Test the patch in a non-production environment before deploying widely. For containerized deployments, rebuild images with the patched version and redeploy. For systemd or other service-based installations, verify that service configurations are compatible with the new version.

Detection guidance

Monitor system logs for unexpected access to IPC sockets or endpoints associated with clash-verge-service-ipc. On Linux systems, inspect /var/run, /tmp, or other IPC locations for world-readable or world-writable socket files created by the service. Use tools like lsof or netstat to enumerate active IPC connections. Behavioral detection should flag privilege escalation events (process UID changes) following interaction with the IPC endpoint. Application-level logging from clash-verge-service-ipc itself—if available—may reveal unauthorized IPC method calls from unprivileged processes.

Why prioritize this

This vulnerability earns a HIGH severity rating (CVSS 8.4) due to its impact scope: it grants complete system compromise through local privilege escalation with no barriers to exploitation. While it requires local access, this is a realistic threat in shared computing environments and is often a follow-on objective in multi-stage attacks. Organizations should prioritize patching based on their exposure: systems with multiple local users, shared hosting environments, CI/CD agents, or systems adjacent to lateral movement paths warrant immediate attention. Even isolated production systems should be updated within standard change windows.

Risk score, explained

The CVSS 3.1 score of 8.4 reflects: Attack Vector (Local) = limited blast radius but applicable to common deployment scenarios; Attack Complexity (Low) = trivial exploitation; Privileges Required (None) and User Interaction (None) = no barriers to triggering the flaw; and Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability impacts (all High) = complete system takeover potential. This score correctly captures a high-impact local privilege escalation that is easy to exploit but requires prior local presence.

Frequently asked questions