UBUNTU-CVE-2026-91786: Medium severity ubuntu/gnome-shell vulnerability

Q: Who is exposed to this issue?

Ubuntu systems running GNOME Shell are exposed when GNOME Shell processes icons supplied by a remote search provider over D-Bus. The relevant risk is to users whose session interacts with a malicious or compromised provider.

Q: What does an attacker need to exploit it?

An attacker needs control of, or the ability to compromise, a remote search provider that supplies icon data through D-Bus. Exploitation also requires user interaction, as reflected by the UI:R attack vector.

Published Sep 15, 2026

Updated

A flaw was found in GNOME Shell. When processing icons from a remote search provider via D-Bus, the system fails to validate the icon's declared dimensions against the actual data buffer size. A malicious or compromised remote search provider could exploit this by providing oversized icon dimensions, leading to an out-of-bounds read. This can cause the GNOME Shell process to crash, disrupting the user's session, and potentially disclose sensitive information from adjacent memory.

Affected Software

6 affected componentsFixes available

ubuntu/gnome-shell*

ubuntu/gnome-shell<42.9-0ubuntu2.4

42.9-0ubuntu2.4

ubuntu/gnome-shell<46.0-0ubuntu6~24.04.17

46.0-0ubuntu6~24.04.17

ubuntu/gnome-shell<50.1-0ubuntu1.5

50.1-0ubuntu1.5

Remediation

Recommended actions to resolve this vulnerability, in priority order.

Upgrade
Upgrade ubuntu/gnome-shell to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 42.9-0ubuntu2.4
Upgrade
Upgrade ubuntu/gnome-shell to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 46.0-0ubuntu6~24.04.17
Upgrade
Upgrade ubuntu/gnome-shell to a version that resolves this vulnerability.
Fixed in 50.1-0ubuntu1.5

Event History

Sep 15, 2026

CVE Published

via OSV·11:17 AM

Data Sourced

via OSV·11:17 AM

DescriptionSeverityAffected Software

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is exposed to this issue?

Ubuntu systems running GNOME Shell are exposed when GNOME Shell processes icons supplied by a remote search provider over D-Bus. The relevant risk is to users whose session interacts with a malicious or compromised provider.

What does an attacker need to exploit it?

An attacker needs control of, or the ability to compromise, a remote search provider that supplies icon data through D-Bus. Exploitation also requires user interaction, as reflected by the UI:R attack vector.

UBUNTU-CVE-2026-91786: Medium severity ubuntu/gnome-shell vulnerability

Affected Software

Remediation

Event History

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is exposed to this issue?

What does an attacker need to exploit it?

Company

Resources

Contact

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is exposed to this issue?

What does an attacker need to exploit it?