CVE-2026-33897 json
Incus vulnerable to arbitrary file read and write through pongo templates
published 2026-03-26 7 mo ago modified 2026-06-17 4 mo ago also EUVD-2026-16466 , GHSA-83xr-5xxr-mh92 , GO-2026-4881
- cvss
- 10.0
- version 3.1, CNA
- cisa kev
- Not listed
- not in CISA's catalog
- epss
- 0.5%
- EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 42%
- public exploits
- 0
- none known
Summary
Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. Prior to version 6.23.0, instance template files can be used to cause arbitrary read or writes as root on the host server. Incus allows for pongo2 templates within instances which can be used at various times in the instance lifecycle to template files inside of the instance. This particular implementation of pongo2 within Incus allowed for file read/write but with the expectation that the pongo2 chroot feature would isolate all such access to the instance's filesystem. This was allowed such that a template could theoretically read a file and then generate a new version of said file. Unfortunately the chroot isolation mechanism is entirely skipped by pongo2 leading to easy access to the entire system's filesystem with root privileges. Version 6.23.0 patches the issue.
Patch / fix
- go github.com/lxc/incus/v6 6.23.0
- linuxcontainers incus 6.23.0
- lxd Debian 13 5.0.2+git20231211.1364ae4-9+deb13u4
- incus Debian 13 6.0.4-2+deb13u5
- incus Debian 14 6.0.6-2
debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2026-33897
- govulncheck-vulndb openSUSE Leap 16.0 0.0.20260723T184607-160000.1.1
- incus openSUSE Tumbleweed 6.23-1.1
opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21483-1openSUSE-SU-2026:10450-1
- github.com/lxc/incus@487edf5 commit
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-2026-33897 updated cvss 9.1
incus: pongo2: Incus: Arbitrary file read/write as root via pongo2 template chroot bypass
-
Red Hat All currently supported Red Hat productsnot 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
- yes
- Technical impact
- total
- Assessed
- 7 mo ago
Exploit prediction
0.49% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 42% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | 3.1 | 10.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| GitHub | 3.1 | 9.9 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
Affected packages
| ecosystem | package | affected | fixed in |
|---|---|---|---|
| go | github.com/lxc/incus/v6 | <6.23.0 |
6.23.0 |
| go | github.com/lxc/incus | <=0.7.0 all versions |
no fix listed |
Affected products
- lxc incus
Classification
- Weakness
-
- CWE-1336 Improper Neutralization of Special Elements Used in a Template Engine
References
-
github.com
/lxc/incus/commit/487edf5984fad89b0f762c03a7e211fdd38396fb
web, patch
-
github.com
/lxc/incus/security/advisories/GHSA-83xr-5xxr-mh92
web, vendor-advisory, advisory
-
nvd.nist.gov
/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-33897
advisory
-
github.com
/lxc/incus
package
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-33897
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-83xr-5xxr-mh92
- NVD CVE-2026-33897
- OSV GO-2026-4881
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.
CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.