VULNERABILITY INTELLIGENCE
CVE-2026-50540
CVSS score9.6 CRITICAL
EPSS probability0.61%
CISA KEVNot currently listed
Published2026-08-07
Last modified2026-09-09
CVSS vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
Description
Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. Prior to version 4.0.0, kata-runtime is vulnerable to host code execution via an unvalidated configuration path annotation. The runtime accepts an arbitrary io.katacontainers.config_path pod annotation and loads the referenced host TOML file without restriction. As a result, a pod user who can place a file at a host-visible path can supply a configuration that selects an attacker-controlled hypervisor or virtio-fs daemon binary, executing code as root on the host. This issue is fixed in version 4.0.0.
Weakness classification
- security-advisories@github.com: CWE-20