CVE-2026-23953

Incus container environment configuration newline injection

Published Jan 22, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 8.7 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. In versions 6.20.0 and below, a user with the ability to launch a container with a custom YAML configuration (e.g a member of the ‘incus’ group) can create an environment variable containing newlines, which can be used to add additional configuration items in the container’s lxc.conf due to newline injection. This can allow adding arbitrary lifecycle hooks, ultimately resulting in arbitrary command execution on the host. Exploiting this issue on IncusOS requires a slight modification of the payload to change to a different writable directory for the validation step (e.g /tmp). This can be confirmed with a second container with /tmp mounted from the host (A privileged action for validation only). A fix is planned for versions 6.0.6
and 6.21.0, but they have not been released at the time of publication.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Debian DSA Debian DSA DSA-6109-1 incus security update
Debian DSA Debian DSA DSA-6153-1 lxd security update
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 Incus container environment configuration newline injection
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Linuxcontainers
Linuxcontainers incus
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Linuxcontainers
Linuxcontainers incus
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'poc', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Lxc
Lxc incus
Vendors & Products Lxc
Lxc incus
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. In versions 6.20.0 and below, a user with the ability to launch a container with a custom YAML configuration (e.g a member of the ‘incus’ group) can create an environment variable containing newlines, which can be used to add additional configuration items in the container’s lxc.conf due to newline injection. This can allow adding arbitrary lifecycle hooks, ultimately resulting in arbitrary command execution on the host. Exploiting this issue on IncusOS requires a slight modification of the payload to change to a different writable directory for the validation step (e.g /tmp). This can be confirmed with a second container with /tmp mounted from the host (A privileged action for validation only). A fix is planned for versions 6.0.6 and 6.21.0, but they have not been released at the time of publication.
Title Incus container environment configuration newline injection
Weaknesses CWE-93
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 8.7, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
GitHub_M
Published
Updated
Jan 26, 2026, 9:00 PM
Reserved
Jan 19, 2026, 2:49 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Jan 22, 2026, 10:16 PM
Modified
Jun 17, 2026, 10:22 AM