Skip to content
Fencer Vulns
critical 9.9

CVE-2026-44210 json

Kata Containers have VM Escape via virtiofsd Argument Injection through Default-Enabled Pod Annotations

published 2026-05-26 5 mo ago modified 2026-08-06 3 mo ago also EUVD-2026-48339 , GHSA-rr59-xxvx-96qr , GO-2026-5638

cvss
9.9
version 3.1, NVD
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.6%
EPSS 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 48%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. Versions prior to 3.31.0 ship with a default configuration that allows pod creators to inject arbitrary command-line arguments into the virtiofsd process through the `io.katacontainers.config.hypervisor.virtio_fs_extra_args` pod annotation. By injecting `-o source=/` along with `--no-announce-submounts` and `--sandbox=none`, an attacker can override the virtiofsd shared directory to serve the entire host root filesystem into the guest VM. Combined with the `kernel_params` annotation (also enabled by default) to activate the agent debug console, the attacker can mount the host filesystem from inside the VM and read or write any file on the host, including /etc/shadow. Version 3.31.0 patches the issue.

Patch / fix

  • go github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers 0.0.0-20260519062212-ffa59ce3aa78
  • katacontainers kata_containers 3.31.0
  • govulncheck-vulndb openSUSE Leap 16.0 0.0.20260723T184607-160000.1.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2026:21483-1

  • kata-containers Azure Linux 3.0 3.32.0.kata0-1
  • kata-containers-cc Azure Linux 3.0 3.15.0.aks0-20

azure linux advisories AZL-93063AZL-93066

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

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-2026-44210 updated cvss 9.9

kata-containers: Kata Containers: Privilege escalation and information disclosure via command-line argument injection

  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 kata-containers
    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
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
yes
Technical impact
total
Assessed
3 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.59% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 48% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • github.com https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/security/advisories/GHSA-rr59-xxvx-96qr referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 4.0 5.8 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:P
CNA 4.0 5.8 CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:P/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
NVD 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/kata-containers/kata-containers
<0.0.0-20260519062212-ffa59ce3aa78
0.0.0-20260519062212-ffa59ce3aa78

Affected products

  • kata-containers kata-containers

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-88 Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command

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.

CPEs and fixed versions use Anchore's correction of NVD's data: Added CPE configurations because not yet analyzed by NVD.