Description
A command injection vulnerability exists in DigitalOcean Droplet Agent through 1.3.2. The troubleshooting actioner component (internal/troubleshooting/actioner/actioner.go) processes metadata from the metadata service endpoint and executes commands specified in the TroubleshootingAgent.Requesting array without adequate input validation. While the code validates that artifacts exist in the validInvestigationArtifacts map, it fails to sanitize the actual command content after the "command:" prefix. This allows an attacker who can control metadata responses to inject and execute arbitrary OS commands with root privileges. The attack is triggered by sending a TCP packet with specific sequence numbers to the SSH port, which causes the agent to fetch metadata from http://169.254.169.254/metadata/v1.json. The vulnerability affects the command execution flow in internal/troubleshooting/actioner/actioner.go (insufficient validation), internal/troubleshooting/command/exec.go (direct exec.CommandContext call), and internal/troubleshooting/command/command.go (command parsing without sanitization). This can lead to complete system compromise, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, and potential lateral movement across cloud infrastructure.
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
openSUSE
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| openSUSE Leap 16.0 | govulncheck-vulndb | 0.0.20260723T184607-160000.1.1 | openSUSE-SU-2026:21483-1 |
| openSUSE Leap 15.6 | govulncheck-vulndb | 0.0.20260326T203309-150000.1.155.2 | SUSE-SU-2026:1135-1 |
Public exploits
Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.
GitHub 2 repositories
-
poxsky/CVE-2026-24516-DigitalOcean-RCE ★ 1 · Mar 22, 2026
Critical Pre-Auth Root RCE (CVSS 10.0) in DigitalOcean Droplet Agent up to v1.3.2 via Command Injection.
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poxsky/CVE-2026-24516-DigitalOcean-RCE. ★ 0 · Apr 3, 2026
Technical analysis and PoC for CVE-2026-24516: Unauthenticated Root Remote Code Execution in DigitalOcean Droplet Agent (CVSS 10.0).
Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Go | github.com/digitalocean/droplet-agent | <= 0.0.0-20260107162243-1101ffcb5672 | — | GHSA-fh3m-562m-w4f6 |
| Go | github.com/digitalocean/droplet-agent | all versions | — | GO-2026-4854 |
Advisories 2
- openSUSE-SU-2026:21483-1 Security update for govulncheck-vulndb SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Jul 31, 2026
- SUSE-SU-2026:1135-1 Security update for govulncheck-vulndb SUSE / openSUSE Security Updates · Mar 31, 2026
References
- https://github.com/digitalocean/droplet-agent/blob/main/internal/troubleshooting/actioner/actioner.go
- https://github.com/digitalocean/droplet-agent/blob/main/internal/troubleshooting/command/exec.go
- https://github.com/digitalocean/droplet-agent/blob/main/internal/troubleshooting/command/command.go
- https://github.com/poxsky/CVE-2026-24516-DigitalOcean-RCE