Bug 2500228 (CVE-2026-50540)

Summary: CVE-2026-50540 kata-runtime: kata-runtime-rs: Kata Containers: Arbitrary code execution via manipulated configuration path
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security <prodsec-ir-bot>
Status: NEW --- QA Contact:
Severity: high Docs Contact:
Priority: high    
Version: unspecifiedCC: rekumar, security-response-team, vvoronko
Target Milestone: ---Keywords: Security
Target Release: ---   
Hardware: All   
OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in Kata Containers, affecting both its Rust and Go runtimes. An authenticated pod user can exploit this by setting the `io.katacontainers.config_path` annotation to an arbitrary configuration file on the host. This allows the attacker to control privileged runtime settings, leading to the execution of malicious binaries as root on the host system. The primary consequence is arbitrary code execution with elevated privileges.
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oVirt Team: --- RHEL 7.3 requirements from Atomic Host:
Cloudforms Team: --- Target Upstream Version:
Embargoed:
Deadline: 2026-07-20   

Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-07-14 18:09:27 UTC 
A vulnerability has been reported in the Kata Containers configuration loading path in both the Rust and Go runtimes. Both runtimes accept the sandbox configuration file path from the pod annotation io.katacontainers.config_path. This path is then passed to the TOML configuration loader without sufficient validation or restriction. An authenticated pod user who is able to set pod annotations may point io.katacontainers.config_path at an arbitrary TOML configuration file available on the host. Since the Kata configuration controls privileged runtime settings, including hypervisor and virtio-fs daemon binary paths, a malicious configuration may cause attacker-controlled binaries to be executed as root on the host when the sandbox starts.