Vulnerability-Lookup

CVE-2026-13201 (GCVE-0-2026-13201)

Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-06-24 20:39 – Updated: 2026-06-25 23:23

Title

Kubevirt: virt-handler-rhel9: kubevirt: safepath symlink following in virt-handler enables notify socket hijacking and node-level vm disruption

Summary

A flaw was found in KubeVirt's safepath package used by virt-handler. The OpenAtNoFollow function uses O_PATH|O_NOFOLLOW to obtain a file descriptor to a path leaf, but downstream operations resolve the path via /proc/self/fd/N using link-following syscalls. When the leaf is a symlink, the kernel dereferences it, defeating the intended no-follow protection. An attacker with access to a virt-launcher pod can exploit this to redirect virt-handler's IPC socket connections, including the notify socket used for VM domain lifecycle events. By hijacking this socket, the attacker can inject arbitrary domain events into virt-handler, causing it to take incorrect lifecycle actions, corrupt VM state in the Kubernetes API, or crash — resulting in sustained denial of VM management services for all virtual machines on the affected node. Additionally, the same symlink following flaw allows virt-handler to apply file ownership or permission changes to unintended host paths.

Severity

7.3 (High)


                        
                          CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:H

SSVC

Exploitation: none Automatable: no Technical Impact: partial

CISA Coordinator (v2.0.3)

CWE

CWE-61 - UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following

Assigner

redhat

References

2 references

URL	Tags
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-13201	vdb-entryx_refsource_REDHAT
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2492203	issue-trackingx_refsource_REDHAT

Impacted products

1 product

Vendor	Product	Version
Red Hat	Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4	cpe:/a:redhat:container_native_virtualization:4

Date Public

2026-06-24 00:00

Credits

This issue was discovered by Huzaifa Sidhpurwala (Red Hat).

Show details on NVD website

JSON

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GHSA-RCFC-7M3G-H5XH

Vulnerability from github – Published: 2026-06-24 21:30 – Updated: 2026-06-24 21:30

Details

A flaw was found in KubeVirt's safepath package. The OpenAtNoFollow function uses O_PATH|O_NOFOLLOW to obtain a file descriptor to a path leaf, but downstream helpers operate via /proc/self/fd/N using link-following syscalls. When the leaf is a symlink, the kernel dereferences it, defeating the intended no-follow protection. An attacker with access to a virt-launcher pod can exploit this to cause virt-handler to apply file ownership or permission changes to an unintended host path.

Severity

5.2 (Medium)


                  
                    CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:L

Show details on source website

JSON

To clipboard

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  "affected": [],
  "aliases": [
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  ],
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    "github_reviewed": false,
    "github_reviewed_at": null,
    "nvd_published_at": "2026-06-24T21:16:52Z",
    "severity": "MODERATE"
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  "id": "GHSA-rcfc-7m3g-h5xh",
  "modified": "2026-06-24T21:30:44Z",
  "published": "2026-06-24T21:30:44Z",
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      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-13201"
    },
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    }
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}

Sightings

Author	Source	Type	Date	Other

Nomenclature

Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.

Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.

Action not permitted

CVE-2026-13201 (GCVE-0-2026-13201)

GHSA-RCFC-7M3G-H5XH

Tags

Sightings

Nomenclature