Kata Container to Guest micro VM privilege escalation

Summary

CVE	CVE-2026-24834
State	PUBLISHED
Assigner	GitHub_M
Source Priority	CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published	2026-02-19 17:24:49 UTC
Updated	2026-06-30 03:17:39 UTC
Description	Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. In versions prior to 3.27.0, an issue in Kata with Cloud Hypervisor allows a user of the container to modify the file system used by the Guest micro VM ultimately achieving arbitrary code execution as root in said VM. The current understanding is this doesn’t impact the security of the Host or of other containers / VMs running on that Host (note that arm64 QEMU lacks NVDIMM read-only support: It is believed that until the upstream QEMU gains this capability, a guest write could reach the image file). Version 3.27.0 patches the issue.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 8.8 HIGH from [email protected]

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

EPSS: 0.002230000 probability, percentile 0.128160000 (date 2026-07-01)

Problem Types: CWE-732 | CWE-281 | CWE-732 CWE-732: Incorrect Permission Assignment for Critical Resource | CWE-281 Improper Preservation of Permissions

Version	Source	Type	Score	Severity	Vector
3.1	[email protected]	Primary	8.8	HIGH	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`
3.1	ADP	CVSS	9.3	CRITICAL	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`
3.1	[email protected]	Secondary	9.3	CRITICAL	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`
3.1	0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c	Secondary	9.3	CRITICAL	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`
3.1	CNA	DECLARED	9.4	CRITICAL	`CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H`

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector

Local

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Changed

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

High

Availability

High

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

NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)

Type	Vendor	Product	Version	Update	Edition	Language
Application	Katacontainers	Kata Containers	All	All	All	All

Vendor Declared Affected Products

Source	Vendor	Product	Version	Platforms
CNA	Kata-containers	Kata-containers	affected < 3.27.0	Not specified
ADP	Red Hat	Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4	Not specified	Not specified
ADP	Red Hat	Confidential Compute Attestation	Not specified	Not specified

References

Reference	Source	Link	Tags
security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-24834.json	0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c	security.access.redhat.com
github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/security/advisories/GHSA-wwj6...	[email protected]	github.com	Exploit, Vendor Advisory
github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/commit/6a672503973bf7c687053e...	[email protected]	github.com	Patch
github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/releases/tag/3.27.0	[email protected]	github.com	Product, Release Notes
access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-24834	0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c	access.redhat.com
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi	0b0ca135-0b70-47e7-9f44-1890c2a1c46c	bugzilla.redhat.com
CVE Program record	CVE.ORG	www.cve.org	canonical
NVD vulnerability detail	NVD	nvd.nist.gov	canonical, analysis

No vendor comments have been submitted for this CVE.

Additional Advisory Data

Source	Time	Event
ADP	2026-02-19T17:03:55.479Z	Reported to Red Hat.
ADP	2026-02-19T15:57:50.691Z	Made public.

Workarounds

ADP: Mitigation for this issue is either not available or the currently available options do not meet the Red Hat Product Security criteria comprising ease of use and deployment, applicability to widespread installation base or stability.

There are currently no legacy QID mappings associated with this CVE.