Symlink Following Vulnerability in KubeVirt's virt-handler Migration Proxy
CVE-2026-13622

8.8HIGH

Key Information:

Vendor

Red Hat
Status
Red Hat Openshift Virtualization 4
Vendor
CVE Published:
12 August 2026

What is CVE-2026-13622?

A symlink following vulnerability in KubeVirt's virt-handler migration proxy could allow an attacker with namespace edit permissions to manipulate socket paths during live migration. This vulnerability arises because virt-handler accesses Unix sockets through /proc//root/ paths without adequate symlink protection, enabling an attacker to replace migration proxy sockets with symlinks pointing to the host CRI-O socket. As virt-handler operates as root within the host mount namespace, this may lead to full node compromise, allowing unauthorized control over the container runtime.

References

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-13622
vdb-entryx_refsource_REDHAT
https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2494142
issue-trackingx_refsource_REDHAT

CVSS V3.1

Score:
8.8
Severity:
HIGH
Confidentiality:
High
Integrity:
High
Availability:
High
Attack Vector:
Local
Attack Complexity:
Low
Privileges Required:
Low
User Interaction:
None
Scope:
Changed

Timeline

  • Vulnerability published

  • Vulnerability Reserved

Credit

This issue was discovered by Huzaifa Sidhpurwala (Red Hat).
.