Host Code Execution Vulnerability in Kata Containers by Kata Containers Project
CVE-2026-50540

9.6CRITICAL

Key Information:

Vendor

Kata-containers

Status
Kata-containers
Vendor
CVE Published:
7 August 2026

What is CVE-2026-50540?

Kata Containers, an open source initiative for lightweight Virtual Machines that emulate container performance, contains a vulnerability prior to version 4.0.0. An issue exists where the kata-runtime accepts an unvalidated io.katacontainers.config_path pod annotation which allows users to load a host TOML file without proper restrictions. This could enable a malicious pod user to provide a configuration that references a compromised hypervisor or virtio-fs daemon binary, thus executing arbitrary code with root privileges on the host system. The vulnerability has been addressed in version 4.0.0.

Affected Version(s)

kata-containers < 4.0.0

References

https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/securi...
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https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/commit...
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CVSS V3.1

Score:
9.6
Severity:
CRITICAL
Confidentiality:
High
Integrity:
High
Availability:
High
Attack Vector:
Network
Attack Complexity:
Low
Privileges Required:
Low
User Interaction:
None
Scope:
Changed

Timeline

  • Vulnerability published

  • Vulnerability Reserved

.