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High, CVSS 8.2amended

Lima: An arbitrary user in a QEMU VM could gain the root privilege in the VM via the guest agent socket

CVE-2026-53657GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2

What to do

Partial vendor fix. Follow the primary source's mitigation guidance and check back for a fix.

This page has no inventory attached, so it cannot say whether you are affected. A vendor fix is not proof that your deployment is fixed.

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Affected packages

  • Go github.com/lima-vm/lima

    Affected
    every version
    Fixed in
    no fixed version recorded

  • Go github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2

    Affected
    <= 2.1.2
    Fixed in
    2.1.3

Sources

Severity and exploitation
Exploitation
No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.
CVSS
8.2 · CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
EPSS
  • CVE-2026-53657: 0.20% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 9.44 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.
Source description

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact On an instance of Lima running with qemu driver, an arbitrary user in the VM could access /run/lima-guestagent.sock when the guest agent is enabled. This could result in running an arbitrary command with the root privileges in the VM (not on the host), as lima-guestagent.sock provides the tunneling service for an arbitrary address, including a Unix socket address for privileged daemons like D-Bus. This vulnerability is not exploitable on vz driver, as the guest agent uses vsocks instead of Unix sockets. Patches Patched in Lima v2.1.3 (8a45892378d22f40505c31a38f786a07701b6d50) [!NOTE] The default user account in the VM can still run an arbitrary command as the root via the guest agent socket. This is not a vulnerability, as the user can already run an arbitrary command with sudo by design. Workarounds - On macOS hosts, use vz driver instead of qemu (limactl create --vm-type=vz. Default since v1.0.) - Or, disable the guest agent (limactl create --plain)

Dates and revisions
Published by the source
Last modified by the source
Source last checked
  1. Revision 3 · amended ·

    Amended from ghsa record GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2

  2. Revision 2 · amended ·

    Amended from osv record GO-2026-6230

  3. Revision 1 · created ·

    Published from osv record GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2

Agent brief

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2026-53657

Advisory: Lima: An arbitrary user in a QEMU VM could gain the root privilege in the VM via the guest agent socket
IDs: CVE-2026-53657, GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2026-53657 (revision 3, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:28 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 8.2)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Partial vendor fix; fixed versions by package: github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 2.1.3. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/lima-vm/lima: affected every version
- Go github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2: affected <= 2.1.2; fixed in 2.1.3

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/lima-vm/lima: check the installed version with your package manager.
- Go github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
No complete vendor fix is recorded. Follow the primary source's mitigation guidance and check this record again before closing anything.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on github.com/lima-vm/lima, github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2.
- 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://osv.dev/vulnerability/GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 (OSV record GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 lists affected ranges: Go github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 >=0 <2.1.3 (fixed))
- Verified: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/GO-2026-6230 (OSV record GO-2026-6230 lists affected ranges: Go github.com/lima-vm/lima >=0; Go github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 >=0 <2.1.3 (fixed))
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 lists affected ranges: Go github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 >=0 <=2.1.2)

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