CVE-2026-40197 PUBLISHED

Incus nil-pointer dereference in custom volume import allows denial of service

Assigner: GitHub_M
Reserved: 09.04.2026 Published: 06.05.2026 Updated: 06.05.2026

Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. In versions before 7.0.0, missing validation logic in the storage volume import logic allows an authenticated user with access to the storage volume feature to cause the Incus daemon to crash. The custom volume backup import subsystem contains a nil-pointer dereference vulnerability during import operations. In the snapshot import loop, the daemon iterates over entries from srcBackup.Config.VolumeSnapshots and assumes that each slice element is initialized, then dereferences fields such as Name, Config, Description, CreatedAt, and ExpiresAt without first validating the element itself. Because the yaml unmarshaler accepts explicit null array elements from an attacker-controlled index.yaml and converts them into nil pointers inside the slice, an attacker can supply a backup archive containing a null entry in the volume_snapshots array. This causes a nil-pointer dereference during custom volume import and terminates the daemon, resulting in denial of service on the affected node. Repeated use of this issue can be used to keep Incus offline, causing a denial of service. This issue is fixed in version 7.0.0.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N
CVSS Score: 7.1

Product Status

Vendor lxc
Product incus
Versions
  • Version < 7.0.0 is affected

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-476: NULL Pointer Dereference CWE