Pi-hole FTL remote code execution via newline injection in dns.interface configuration
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Attack requirements
- None
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA.
Summary
Pi-hole FTL is the core engine of the Pi-hole network-level advertisement and tracker blocker. In versions before 6.6.1, the `dns.interface` configuration field in Pi-hole FTL accepted newline characters without validation, allowing an attacker to inject arbitrary directives into the generated dnsmasq configuration file. On installations with no admin password set (the default for many deployments), the configuration API is fully accessible without credentials, allowing a network-adjacent attacker to inject the payload, enable the built-in DHCP server, and achieve arbitrary command execution on the host the next time any device on the network requests a DHCP lease. The injected value is persisted to /etc/pihole/pihole.toml and survives restarts. The strncpy in the code path limits the total interface field to 31 bytes, but payloads such as wlan0\ndhcp-script=/tmp/p fit within this constraint. The dnsmasq config validation introduced in FTL 6.6 only checks syntactic validity, so valid directives injected via newline pass validation successfully. This issue has been fixed in version 6.6.1.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Total
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
Remediation
- Fix · CNA FTL (pi-hole) Fixed in 6.6.1
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-39849
References
More Pi-hole Ftldns vulnerabilities
- TI-2026-27638 Pi-hole FTL affected by Remote Code Execution (RCE) via dhcp.hosts Newline Injection CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2026-27637 Pi-hole FTL affected by Remote Code Execution (RCE) via dhcp.leaseTime Newline Injection CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2026-27636 Pi-hole FTL affected by Remote Code Execution (RCE) via dns.hostRecord Newline Injection CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2026-27635 Pi-hole FTL affected by Remote Code Execution (RCE) via dns.cnameRecords Newline Injection CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2026-27634 Pi-hole FTL affected by Remote Code Execution (RCE) via dns.upstreams Newline Injection CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
- TI-2026-27620 Pi-hole FTL: CLI API sessions can import Teleporter archives and modify configuration CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.1
Sources
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences