Dell SCG 5.0 Appliance versions prior to 5.36.00.16 and Dell SCG 5.0 Application versions prior to 5.36.00.00, contains an Execution with Unnecessary Privileges vulnerability. An unauthenticated attacker with local access could potentially exploit this vulnerability, leading to Protection mechanism bypass. This vulnerability is considered critical because a low-privileged operator with SSH access to the SCG host can gain root-level access to the host without requiring a password by leveraging the exposed Docker socket. Additionally, an attacker who compromises a service running within the orchestrator container can access the same socket and escape the container boundary to obtain host-level control. Dell recommends that customers upgrade at the earliest opportunity.

A critical privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2026-80238) has been identified in Dell Secure Connect Gateway (SCG) 5.0 Appliance versions prior to 5.36.00.16 and Application versions prior to 5.36.00.00. The flaw is classified as Execution with Unnecessary Privileges and allows a low-privileged user with SSH access to gain root-level control of the host by exploiting an exposed Docker socket, without requiring a password. Additionally, an attacker who compromises a containerized service can use the same Docker socket to escape the container and achieve full host-level control. The vulnerability can also be leveraged by unauthenticated attackers with local access, leading to protection mechanism bypass. Dell has rated this vulnerability as critical and strongly recommends customers upgrade immediately to the patched versions.