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Vulnerability · Published May 26, 2026 · Assigned by redhat

CVE-2026-7374Kubevirt: kubevirt virt-handler: privilege escalation and node compromise via symlink following vulnerability

Critical 9.9

In plain English

A critical-severity security flaw in kubevirt. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.7% (higher than 55% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.

Severity (CVSS 3.1)9.9Critical
Exploit odds (30 days)0.7%top 45.1% of all CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none
Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing the console socket with a symlink to the host's container runtime (CRI-O) socket, an attacker can hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This enables the attacker to access any Unix socket on the host, potentially leading to full control of the node and the entire cluster.

Affected packages & fixed versions

EcosystemPackageFixed inAdvisory
Gokubevirt.io/kubevirt1.8.3GHSA-7jcp-v9w4-wjmg
Gokubevirt.io/kubevirt1.7.4GHSA-7jcp-v9w4-wjmg
Gokubevirt.io/kubevirt1.6.6GHSA-7jcp-v9w4-wjmg
Gokubevirt.io/kubevirt1.6.6, 1.7.4, 1.8.3GO-2026-5848

Affected products (as reported)

VendorProductVersions
kubevirt 0 – before 1.6.61.7.0 – before 1.7.41.8.0 – before 1.8.3
Red Hat Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.12 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.13 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.14 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.15 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.16 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.17 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.18 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.19 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.20 see references
Red Hat Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.21 see references

Weakness: CWE-59 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

References