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Fencer Vulns
high 7.3

CVE-2026-12080 json

Qemu-kvm: qemu-guest-agent: local privilege escalation via symlink attack in guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys

published 2026-07-20 3 mo ago modified 2026-11-09 24 min ago also EUVD-2026-45941

cvss
7.3
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.1%
EPSS 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 3%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

A flaw was found in the QEMU Guest Agent (qga). A local unprivileged user can exploit a vulnerability in the guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys command handler by manipulating symbolic links. This can occur either through a deterministic directory-symlink bypass or a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) file-symlink race. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to gain ownership of arbitrary root-owned files or directories, leading to root access. This vulnerability requires an external management layer (e.g., libvirt) to trigger the affected code path.

Patch / fix

  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9
  • Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.22 4.22.9.8.202611032353-0
  • Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5.0 5.0.10.2.202611022203-0
  • qemu Debian 14 1:11.1.2+ds-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-12080

  • qemu-kvm AlmaLinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1
  • qemu-img AlmaLinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1
  • qemu-kvm-core AlmaLinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1
  • qemu-kvm-tools AlmaLinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1
  • qemu-pr-helper AlmaLinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1
  • qemu-kvm-common AlmaLinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1
  • qemu-guest-agent AlmaLinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1
  • qemu-kvm-audio-pa AlmaLinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1

almalinux advisories ALSA-2026:88421

  • qemu-kvm Rocky Linux 9 7:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2026:88421

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2026-12080 updated cvss 7.3

qemu-kvm: qemu-guest-agent: Local privilege escalation via symlink attack in guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys

  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 qemu-img, qemu-kvm, qemu-kvm-core, qemu-kvm-tests, qemu-kvm-common, qemu-guest-agent, +8 more Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 qemu-kvm
    affected: workaround, no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA 26 qemu-kvm
    affected: workaround, no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8
    affected: workaround, no fix available
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) qemu-img 10.1.0-17.el9_8.9, qemu-kvm 10.1.0-17.el9_8.9, qemu-kvm-core 10.1.0-17.el9_8.9, qemu-kvm-tools 10.1.0-17.el9_8.9, qemu-pr-helper 10.1.0-17.el9_8.9, qemu-kvm-common 10.1.0-17.el9_8.9, +13 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:88421
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.22 rhcos 4.22.9.8.202611032353
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:95346
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5.0 rhcos 5.0.9.8.202611022248, rhcos 5.0.10.2.202611022203
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2026:94537
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 qemu-img, qemu-kvm, qemu-kvm-tools, qemu-guest-agent, qemu-guest-agent-win32 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 qemu-img, qemu-kvm, libcacard, qemu-img-ma, qemu-kvm-ma, qemu-kvm-tools, +5 more
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
none
Automatable
no
Technical impact
total
Assessed
3 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.14% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 3% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 7.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

Affected products

  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9
  • Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.22
  • Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5.0
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8
  • Red Hat Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA 26
  • Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-61 UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.