Bug 2506563 (CVE-2026-44210)

Summary: CVE-2026-44210 kata-containers: Kata Containers: Privilege escalation and information disclosure via command-line argument injection
Product: [Other] Security Response Reporter: OSIDB Bzimport <bzimport>
Component: vulnerabilityAssignee: Product Security DevOps Team <prodsec-dev>
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Version: unspecifiedKeywords: Security
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OS: Linux   
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A flaw was found in Kata Containers, an open-source project that provides lightweight virtual machines (VMs) for containers. A user with privileges to create pods can inject malicious command-line arguments into the virtiofsd process, which manages shared file systems. This injection allows an attacker to override the shared directory, enabling the guest VM to access the entire host's root filesystem. When combined with another default configuration, this vulnerability allows an attacker to read and write any file on the host system, leading to significant information disclosure and potential privilege escalation.
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Bug Depends On: 2509231    
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Description OSIDB Bzimport 2026-07-23 18:02:25 UTC 
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.