Talos Linux has a local privilege escalation from untrusted workloads

Exploitation

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

CVSS

7.5 · CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N

EPSS

No dated EPSS signal available.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Summary A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's algifaead subsystem (CVE-2026-31431, "copy.fail") allows an unprivileged container workload to corrupt arbitrary file page-cache pages via the AFALG crypto interface and splice(). On Talos Linux, this vulnerability can be chained into a complete node compromise: an attacker who can schedule a pod on a worker node can, without any elevated Kubernetes permissions, achieve arbitrary code execution as root on the host (by poisoning a binary inside a privileged pod, or poisoning a binary which runs with elevated privileges like a CNI binary), access host filesystem, including node secrets. The exploit does not require kernel debugging, race conditions, or any prior privileges beyond the ability to create a pod. Impact An attacker with the ability to deploy a Kubernetes pod on an affected node can: 1. Corrupt the page-cache of /usr/sbin/nft in the containerd snapshot layer shared between the attacker's pod and the kube-proxy DaemonSet. Because…

Published by the source

7 May 2026, 02:38 UTC

Last modified by the source

8 Jun 2026, 23:43 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 15:23 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-m38g-vww2-mvgx

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# Patch Next advisory brief: GHSA-m38g-vww2-mvgx

Advisory: Talos Linux has a local privilege escalation from untrusted workloads
IDs: GHSA-m38g-vww2-mvgx
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/ghsa-m38g-vww2-mvgx (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:23 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.5)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: github.com/siderolabs/talos 1.12.7. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/siderolabs/talos: affected < 1.12.7; fixed in 1.12.7

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/siderolabs/talos: 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/siderolabs/talos.
- 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-m38g-vww2-mvgx (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-m38g-vww2-mvgx lists affected ranges: Go github.com/siderolabs/talos >=0 <1.12.7)

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