Kata Containers have VM Escape via virtiofsd Argument Injection through Default-Enabled Pod Annotations

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS 4.0

5.8 · CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:P · score source

EPSS

• CVE-2026-44210: 0.59% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 48.41 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Summary Kata Containers ships with a default configuration that allows pod creators to inject arbitrary command-line arguments into the virtiofsd process through the io.katacontainers.config.hypervisor.virtiofsextraargs pod annotation. By injecting -o source=/ along with --no-announce-submounts and --sandbox=none, an attacker can override the virtiofsd shared directory to serve the entire host root filesystem into the guest VM. Combined with the kernelparams annotation (also enabled by default) to activate the agent debug console, the attacker can mount the host filesystem from inside the VM and read or write any file on the host, including /etc/shadow. Details The default Kata configuration at configuration.toml line 1 contains: Both virtiofsextraargs and kernelparams are enabled out of the box. The annotation name is checked against this allowlist, but the annotation value (the actual arguments) is never validated or filtered. In utils.go at line 981, the runtime parses the…

Published by the source

26 May 2026, 23:57 UTC

Last modified by the source

28 Jul 2026, 01:48 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 15:27 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-rr59-xxvx-96qr

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2026-44210

Advisory: Kata Containers have VM Escape via virtiofsd Argument Injection through Default-Enabled Pod Annotations
IDs: CVE-2026-44210, GHSA-rr59-xxvx-96qr
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2026-44210 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:27 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 5.8)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers 0.0.0-20260519062212-ffa59ce3aa78. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers: affected < 0.0.0-20260519062212-ffa59ce3aa78; fixed in 0.0.0-20260519062212-ffa59ce3aa78

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-rr59-xxvx-96qr (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-rr59-xxvx-96qr lists affected ranges: Go github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers >=0 <0.0.0-20260519062212-ffa59ce3aa78)

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