8.8
HIGH CVSS 3.1
CVE-2026-24516
DigitalOcean Droplet Agent Command Injection Vulnerability
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.

INFO

Published Date :

March 23, 2026, 5:16 p.m.

Last Modified :

March 24, 2026, 3:54 p.m.

Remotely Exploit :

Yes !
Affected Products

The following products are affected by CVE-2026-24516 vulnerability. Even if cvefeed.io is aware of the exact versions of the products that are affected, the information is not represented in the table below.

No affected product recoded yet

CVSS Scores
The Common Vulnerability Scoring System is a standardized framework for assessing the severity of vulnerabilities in software and systems. We collect and displays CVSS scores from various sources for each CVE.
Score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Score Impact Score Source
CVSS 3.1 HIGH 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0
Solution
Update DigitalOcean Droplet Agent to patch command injection vulnerability.
  • Update DigitalOcean Droplet Agent to version 1.3.3 or later.
  • Ensure metadata responses are validated before execution.
  • Review command execution flows for sanitization.
Public PoC/Exploit Available at Github

CVE-2026-24516 has a 3 public PoC/Exploit available at Github. Go to the Public Exploits tab to see the list.

CWE - Common Weakness Enumeration

While CVE identifies specific instances of vulnerabilities, CWE categorizes the common flaws or weaknesses that can lead to vulnerabilities. CVE-2026-24516 is associated with the following CWEs:

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC)

Common Attack Pattern Enumeration and Classification (CAPEC) stores attack patterns, which are descriptions of the common attributes and approaches employed by adversaries to exploit the CVE-2026-24516 weaknesses.

We scan GitHub repositories to detect new proof-of-concept exploits. Following list is a collection of public exploits and proof-of-concepts, which have been published on GitHub (sorted by the most recently updated).

Technical analysis and PoC for CVE-2026-24516: Unauthenticated Root Remote Code Execution in DigitalOcean Droplet Agent (CVSS 10.0).

Updated: 1 week, 2 days ago
0 stars 0 fork 0 watcher
Born at : April 3, 2026, 5:25 a.m. This repo has been linked 1 different CVEs too.

Critical Pre-Auth Root RCE (CVSS 10.0) in DigitalOcean Droplet Agent up to v1.3.2 via Command Injection.

Updated: 1 week, 3 days ago
1 stars 0 fork 0 watcher
Born at : March 22, 2026, 8:52 p.m. This repo has been linked 1 different CVEs too.

📡 PoC auto collect from GitHub. ⚠️ Be careful Malware.

security cve exploit poc vulnerability

Updated: 1 week ago
7620 stars 1243 fork 1243 watcher
Born at : Dec. 8, 2019, 1:03 p.m. This repo has been linked 766 different CVEs too.

Results are limited to the first 15 repositories due to potential performance issues.

The following list is the news that have been mention CVE-2026-24516 vulnerability anywhere in the article.

The following table lists the changes that have been made to the CVE-2026-24516 vulnerability over time.

Vulnerability history details can be useful for understanding the evolution of a vulnerability, and for identifying the most recent changes that may impact the vulnerability's severity, exploitability, or other characteristics.

  • CVE Modified by 134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0

    Mar. 24, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added CVSS V3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
    Added CWE CWE-94
  • New CVE Received by [email protected]

    Mar. 23, 2026

    Action Type Old Value New Value
    Added 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.
    Added Reference https://github.com/digitalocean/droplet-agent/blob/main/internal/troubleshooting/actioner/actioner.go
    Added Reference https://github.com/digitalocean/droplet-agent/blob/main/internal/troubleshooting/command/command.go
    Added Reference https://github.com/digitalocean/droplet-agent/blob/main/internal/troubleshooting/command/exec.go
    Added Reference https://github.com/poxsky/CVE-2026-24516-DigitalOcean-RCE
EPSS is a daily estimate of the probability of exploitation activity being observed over the next 30 days. Following chart shows the EPSS score history of the vulnerability.