GitHub Advisoryadvisory · PyPI
GHSA-q38v-wp89-2w55 sh _uid does not drop supplementary groups (incomplete privilege drop)
HIGH
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- Aliases
- CVE-2026-54552
- Ecosystem
- PyPI
- Packages
- sh
- Severity
- High
- CVSS vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
- Weaknesses
- CWE-273
- Reviewed
- 2026-07-17
Affected packages
• PyPI sh: < 2.2.4 → fixed in 2.2.4
Description
Impact
The `_uid` option performed an incomplete privilege drop on Linux/Unix-like systems.
When `sh` was run from a process with elevated privileges, such as root, and a command was launched with `_uid=`, the child process changed its UID and primary GID but did not reset its supplementary groups. As a result, the child process could retain the parent process’s supplementary groups, potentially including privileged groups such as root, docker, disk, shadow, or sudo.
This could allow a subprocess that was expected to run with reduced privileges to access files or resources available to the original process’s supplementary groups. Users are impacted if they rely on `_uid` as a privilege boundary when launching commands from a privileged parent process.
Patches
Upgrade to version >= 2.2.4
Workarounds
Avoid using `_uid` when the user represents a less-privileged user.
Related
Alias · CVE (1)
- CVE-2026-54552 sh provides Python process launching. vulnerability
Weakness · CWE (1)
- CWE-273 Improper Check for Dropped Privileges weakness