{"id":"CVE-2026-50540","title":"Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers","summary":"Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. Prior to version 4.0.0, kata-runtime is vulnerable to host code execution via an unvalida…","severity":"critical","cvss":9.6,"cvssVector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N","cwe":["CWE-20","CWE-22"],"published":"2026-08-07","updated":"2026-09-09","sourceUpdated":"2026-09-09T21:02:22.660","source":"NVD","sourceUrl":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-50540","references":[{"url":"https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/commit/03cc670076099530f4e1e9cb22849afdafb20f65","label":"security-advisories@github.com"},{"url":"https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/security/advisories/GHSA-mp2j-xm59-qfgw","label":"security-advisories@github.com"},{"url":"http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/08/23/3","label":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"},{"url":"http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/08/24/1","label":"af854a3a-2127-422b-91ae-364da2661108"}],"tags":["nvd"],"epss":0.00403,"epssPercentile":0.34325,"ingestedAt":"2026-08-23T21:53:12.409Z","slug":"CVE-2026-50540","body":"## Overview\n\nKata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. Prior to version 4.0.0, kata-runtime is vulnerable to host code execution via an unvalidated configuration path annotation. The runtime accepts an arbitrary io.katacontainers.config_path pod annotation and loads the referenced host TOML file without restriction. As a result, a pod user who can place a file at a host-visible path can supply a configuration that selects an attacker-controlled hypervisor or virtio-fs daemon binary, executing code as root on the host. This issue is fixed in version 4.0.0.\n\n## Remediation\n\nRefer to the linked advisories for vendor-supplied fixes and affected version ranges.","depth":"midnight","depthScore":53,"depthScoreParts":{"impact":52.8,"likelihood":0.1,"exploitation":0,"ransomware":0},"changes":[]}