Vulnerability · Published Jul 23, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M
CVE-2026-44210Kata Containers have VM Escape via virtiofsd Argument Injection through Default-Enabled Pod Annotations
Medium 5.8
In plain English
A medium-severity argument injection in kata-containers from kata-containers. Proof-of-concept exploit code is public. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.6% (higher than 49% of all known vulnerabilities). Fixed versions are available - upgrade the affected package.
Official description
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.
Affected packages & fixed versions
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Go | github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers | 0.0.0-20260519062212-ffa59ce3aa78 | GHSA-rr59-xxvx-96qr |
| Go | github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers | 0.0.0-20260519062212-ffa59ce3aa78 | GO-2026-5638 |
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| kata-containers | kata-containers | < 3.31.0 |
Weakness: CWE-88 · Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:P