CVE-2026-24834

Kata Container to Guest micro VM privilege escalation

Published Feb 19, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 9.4 Critical EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. In versions prior to 3.27.0, an issue in Kata with Cloud Hypervisor allows a user of the container to modify the file system used by the Guest micro VM ultimately achieving arbitrary code execution as root in said VM. The current understanding is this doesn’t impact the security of the Host or of other containers / VMs running on that Host (note that arm64 QEMU lacks NVDIMM read-only support: It is believed that until the upstream QEMU gains this capability, a guest write could reach the image file). Version 3.27.0 patches the issue.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-wwj6-vghv-5p64 Kata Container to Guest micro VM privilege escalation
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

ssvc

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

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Katacontainers kata Containers
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:katacontainers:kata_containers:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products Katacontainers kata Containers
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Katacontainers
Katacontainers kata-containers
Vendors & Products Katacontainers
Katacontainers kata-containers
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. In versions prior to 3.27.0, an issue in Kata with Cloud Hypervisor allows a user of the container to modify the file system used by the Guest micro VM ultimately achieving arbitrary code execution as root in said VM. The current understanding is this doesn’t impact the security of the Host or of other containers / VMs running on that Host (note that arm64 QEMU lacks NVDIMM read-only support: It is believed that until the upstream QEMU gains this capability, a guest write could reach the image file). Version 3.27.0 patches the issue.
Title Kata Container to Guest micro VM privilege escalation
Weaknesses CWE-732
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 9.4, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
GitHub_M
Published
Updated
Jul 15, 2026, 1:16 AM
Reserved
Jan 27, 2026, 2:51 PM
Status
Modified
Published
Feb 19, 2026, 5:24 PM
Modified
Jul 15, 2026, 2:18 AM
Severity
Important
Public date
Feb 19, 2026, 3:57 PM