CVE-2026-50540 PUBLISHED

Kata Containers: Config Path Annotation Arbitrary File Loading

Assigner: GitHub_M
Reserved: 04.06.2026 Published: 07.08.2026 Updated: 07.08.2026

Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. Prior to version 4.0.0, kata-runtime is vulnerable to host code execution via an unvalidated configuration path annotation. The runtime accepts an arbitrary io.katacontainers.config_path pod annotation and loads the referenced host TOML file without restriction. As a result, a pod user who can place a file at a host-visible path can supply a configuration that selects an attacker-controlled hypervisor or virtio-fs daemon binary, executing code as root on the host. This issue is fixed in version 4.0.0.

Metrics

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
CVSS Score: 9.6

Product Status

Vendor kata-containers
Product kata-containers
Versions
  • Version < 4.0.0 is affected

References

Problem Types

  • CWE-20: Improper Input Validation CWE
  • CWE-22: Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory ('Path Traversal') CWE