CVE-2026-49237 json
Local Privilege Escalation in Canonical Multipass
published 2026-05-28 5 mo ago modified 2026-10-14 25 d ago also EUVD-2026-32900
- cvss
- 7.8
- 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
An issue was discovered in Canonical Multipass for macOS before version 1.16.3 due to an incomplete fix for CVE-2025-5199. While the patch in version 1.16.0 updated the ownership of the multipassd daemon binary to root:wheel, five co-located binaries (multipass, qemu-img, qemu-system-aarch64, qemu-system-x86_64, and sshfs_server) in /Library/Application Support/com.canonical.multipass/bin/ retain ownership by the installing user and remain writable. Because the root LaunchDaemon (com.canonical.multipassd.plist) configures a PATH environment variable that prioritizes this user-writable directory and invokes these auxiliary binaries by their bare names, a local attacker can replace an auxiliary binary (such as qemu-img) with a malicious wrapper. When the root daemon subsequently triggers the binary during routine execution (e.g., via multipass launch), the malicious code executes with root privileges, leading to local privilege escalation.
Patch / fix
- Canonical Multipass 1.16.3
CISA SSVC
- Exploitation
- none
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- total
- Assessed
- 5 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).
Exploits and checks
- github.com https://github.com/canonical/multipass/security/advisories/GHSA-r2xg-x32f-23c5 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified
CVSS scores
| assigned by | version | score | vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | 3.1 | 7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
Affected products
- Canonical Multipass
Classification
- Weakness
-
- CWE-276 Incorrect Default Permissions
References
-
github.com
/canonical/multipass/security/advisories/GHSA-r2xg-x32f-23c5
vendor-advisory, exploit, third-party-advisory
Sources
- CVE List CVE-2026-49237
- NVD CVE-2026-49237
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.