Dell patches critical DSU privilege escalation flaw

Dell has released Dell System Update version 2.3.0.0 to address multiple vulnerabilities affecting the DSU command-line tool. The most severe issue, CVE-2026-86360, affects DSU versions prior to 2.3.0.0 and enables full system privilege escalation through an improper limitation of a pathname to a restricted directory.

The path traversal flaw can potentially be exploited by an unauthenticated attacker with remote access, leading to filesystem access for the attacker. Dell said the vulnerability is critical because it can be used to execute arbitrary code with root privileges, which may allow complete compromise of the vulnerable application and the underlying operating system. Customers are advised to upgrade at the earliest opportunity.