Incus vulnerable to arbitrary file read and write through pongo templates

Summary

CVECVE-2026-33897
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-03-26 23:16:20 UTC
Updated2026-03-30 18:55:33 UTC
DescriptionIncus is a system container and virtual machine manager. Prior to version 6.23.0, instance template files can be used to cause arbitrary read or writes as root on the host server. Incus allows for pongo2 templates within instances which can be used at various times in the instance lifecycle to template files inside of the instance. This particular implementation of pongo2 within Incus allowed for file read/write but with the expectation that the pongo2 chroot feature would isolate all such access to the instance's filesystem. This was allowed such that a template could theoretically read a file and then generate a new version of said file. Unfortunately the chroot isolation mechanism is entirely skipped by pongo2 leading to easy access to the entire system's filesystem with root privileges. Version 6.23.0 patches the issue.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 9.9 CRITICAL from [email protected]

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

EPSS: 0.000550000 probability, percentile 0.171790000 (date 2026-04-01)

Problem Types: CWE-1336 | CWE-1336 CWE-1336: Improper Neutralization of Special Elements Used in a Template Engine


VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary9.9CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
3.1CNADECLARED10CRITICALCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

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

NVD Known Affected Configurations (CPE 2.3)

TypeVendorProductVersionUpdateEditionLanguage
Application Linuxcontainers Incus All All All All

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Lxc Incus affected < 6.23.0 Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/lxc/incus/security/advisories/GHSA-83xr-5xxr-mh92 [email protected] github.com Vendor Advisory
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis
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