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Full vulnerability report · 2026
CVE-2026-7374High confidence

Kubevirt: kubevirt virt-handler: privilege escalation and node compromise via symlink following vulnerability

Unknown · Unknown

Official source article: Red Hat RHSA-2026:20720 ↗. Check the applicable product and release in the original source.

9.9CriticalCVSS 3.1
Recommended action
Within 7 days

Critical technical severity; prioritise exposed affected systems while verifying vendor guidance.

Patch available
R
Operational reassessment

Published severity in operational context

Open reassessment dashboard →
Published severityCriticalOperational priority:Critical, unchanged from published severity.unchanged

Evidence used

  • No CISA KEV confirmation is currently recorded.
  • EPSS is 0.83% for the current model date.

Compensating controls

  • Validate the affected product branch and deploy the verified fixed release.
  • Restrict the affected network interface to trusted sources where business-safe.
  • Monitor vendor guidance and exploitation sources for a material change.

Verification

  1. Confirm that the asset runs Unknown Unknown and falls inside the recorded affected range.
  2. Verify the installed build against the product-specific fixed version after deployment.
  3. Validate exposure, authentication requirements and compensating controls in the actual environment.
  4. Reopen this reassessment when CVSS, KEV, EPSS, exploit evidence or remediation changes.
Mitigation target: Within 3 daysRemediation target: Within 90 days

This automated reassessment organises public evidence. It does not know asset exposure, business impact or control effectiveness and does not replace CVSS or a human risk decision.

Open-source package ranges6 source-attributed ranges

These OSV and GitHub advisory ranges apply only to the named package and ecosystem. A listed fixed version is not a universal product patch or proof that an update is installed.

Ecosystem and packageAffected rangeFirst fixed versionEvidence
Gokubevirt.io/kubevirtSEMVER: introduced 1.8.0-alpha.0; fixed 1.8.31.8.3OSV record ↗aggregator derived · 10 Sep 2026
Gokubevirt.io/kubevirtSEMVER: introduced 1.7.0-alpha.0; fixed 1.7.41.7.4OSV record ↗aggregator derived · 10 Sep 2026
Gokubevirt.io/kubevirtSEMVER: introduced 0; fixed 1.6.61.6.6OSV record ↗aggregator derived · 10 Sep 2026
gokubevirt.io/kubevirt>= 1.8.0-alpha.0, < 1.8.31.8.3GitHub advisory ↗github reviewed aggregator · 30 Jun 2026
gokubevirt.io/kubevirt>= 1.7.0-alpha.0, < 1.7.41.7.4GitHub advisory ↗github reviewed aggregator · 30 Jun 2026
gokubevirt.io/kubevirt< 1.6.61.6.6GitHub advisory ↗github reviewed aggregator · 30 Jun 2026
Direct vendor intelligence

Authoritative vendor CSAF and VEX advisories

Structured product status and remediation from the issuing vendor. Product-state explanations are always visible; large lists can be searched or downloaded.

2 current
CVE-2026-7374 · CSAF 2.0 · revision 6 · interimSUSE Product Security TeamCVE-2026-7374
22 known affected

The vendor explicitly identifies these products as affected by this CVE.

  • kubevirt as component of SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3
  • kubevirt-manifests as component of SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3
  • kubevirt-virtctl as component of SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3
  • kubevirt as component of SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4
  • kubevirt-manifests as component of SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4
  • kubevirt-virtctl as component of SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4
  • kubevirt as component of SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5
  • kubevirt-manifests as component of SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5
  • kubevirt-virtctl as component of SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5
  • kubevirt as component of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0
  • kubevirt-virtctl as component of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 16.0
  • kubevirt as component of SUSE Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0
Summary
A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing the console socket with a symlink to the host's container runtime (CRI-O) socket, an attacker can hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This enables the attacker to access any Unix socket on the host, potentially leading to full control of the node and the entire cluster.
Remediation
To install this SUSE Security Update use the SUSE recommended installation methods like YaST online_update or "zypper patch".
CVE-2026-7374 · CSAF 2.0 · revision 3 · finalRed Hat Product Securitykubevirt: KubeVirt virt-handler: Privilege escalation and node compromise via symlink following vulnerability
23 fixed

The vendor explicitly identifies these products or versions as containing the fix.

  • registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/virt-handler@sha256:14d2ab487872ac2180a6bf413703d124e5a66063222712e0b0693d120414512d_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.12
  • registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9@sha256:496bb7164546ea472905bc301a8a4ae9194ec0b300ae847c30bb5a775af5d546_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.13
  • registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9@sha256:efceda8b0057ff086bad77398e617d31e2fbe8c051d865eb529fa5573d3ce4ad_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.13
  • registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9@sha256:136f6df755b01ebc36a1d395b9afa45d3f8100bcdee95e9ead614bb6795348d0_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.14
  • registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9@sha256:7c090185b0d5e89ce52076de7774557581bddb4bbca04763695589cb3bc4c33d_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.14
  • registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9@sha256:150e16ca964b4afd80b41d0ec2f3551e31ed6f18e07aaa91b49c39312a10c799_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.15
  • registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9@sha256:745e83f3037d1720236942e6afc46c2c8bd2e4cd12b1401ae49ef551acfa18fa_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.15
  • registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9@sha256:3f39822dbf9a5ad965f4e09b66ad4319c95e38492095e1a5265033d3d245c060_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.16
  • registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9@sha256:6b730620ed5a6f37170c7ef44a5883e6d8787e30862525fc8ff605ec5e612235_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.16
  • registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9@sha256:72cf5ccb119c366afd5e03cd30896520c904a6a5185763023a2cb0dbe51781d8_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.17
  • registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9@sha256:e8f5225c3db3dd59b8b97c45b653f06d2569a050d9f0269cbf3379e9bbfd7492_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.17
  • registry.redhat.io/container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9@sha256:2182b286267298b951fe96e36abb05de59dc6569b9633e31ce5ec1354f30aeae_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.18
Summary
A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing the console socket with a symlink to the host's container runtime (CRI-O) socket, an attacker can hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This enables the attacker to access any Unix socket on the host, potentially leading to full control of the node and the entire cluster.
Remediation
Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata relevant to your system have been applied. For details on how to apply this update, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258
Optional official sources

National CERT insights
?CERT means Computer Emergency Response Team; CSIRT is the closely related term Computer Security Incident Response Team.

Choose official national sources for this report. Each advisory shows its original language. Your selection is remembered on this device and included in shared links.

Official European source

ENISA European Vulnerability Database

Official EUVD identifiers, advisory evidence and known-exploited context. Missing fields are not treated as evidence of low risk.

1 current
ENISA EUVD identifier

EUVD-2026-31824

No EUVD known-exploited evidence

A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing the console socket with a symlink to the host's container runtime (CRI-O) socket, an attacker can hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This enables the attacker to access any Unix socket on the host, potentially leading to full control of the node and the entire cluster.

EUVD state
Present in the current official mapping
Known exploitation
Not present in the current ENISA EUVD known-exploited dataset. This is not proof of no exploitation.
ENISA score
9.9 · CVSS 3.1
Advisory evidence
No linked advisory details stored yet
Recommended actionWithin 7 days

Critical technical severity; prioritise exposed affected systems while verifying vendor guidance.

Patch available
01

What, why and how

A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing the console socket with a symlink to the host's container runtime (CRI-O) socket, an attacker can hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This enables the attacker to access any Unix socket on the host, potentially leading to full control of the node and the entire cluster.

What

A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing the console socket with a symlink to the host's container runtime (CRI-O) socket, an attacker can hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This enables the attacker to access any Unix socket on the host, potentially leading to full control of the node and the entire cluster.

Why

The product attempts to access a file based on the filename, but it does not properly prevent that filename from identifying a link or shortcut that resolves to an unintended resource.

How

An attacker operating through a network path may attempt exploitation with low privileges. If successful, the issue may cause the confidentiality, integrity or availability impact described by the vendor.

What

A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing the console socket with a symlink to the host's container runtime (CRI-O) socket, an attacker can hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This enables the attacker to access any Unix socket on the host, potentially leading to full control of the node and the entire cluster.

Why

The product attempts to access a file based on the filename, but it does not properly prevent that filename from identifying a link or shortcut that resolves to an unintended resource.

How

An attacker operating through a network path may attempt exploitation with low privileges. If successful, the issue may cause the confidentiality, integrity or availability impact described by the vendor.

02

Exploit reality and attack path

CVSS severity, EPSS forecast probability, public exploit material and CISA-confirmed exploitation are separate signals.

Observed exploitation
?Confirmed exploitation and public exploit material are separate signals. Attacks can occur without public proof-of-concept or exploit code.
No confirmed evidence

No CISA KEV match was present at the last successful refresh. This means no confirmation from that source, not proof of no exploitation.

Public PoC / exploit material
?Confirmed exploitation and public exploit material are separate signals. Attacks can occur without public proof-of-concept or exploit code.
None recorded

No exploit-tagged reference or CISA SSVC proof-of-concept state is currently recorded. Research may still exist outside the structured feeds.

Likely attack path
a network path → Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following') → cause the confidentiality, integrity or availability impact described by the vendor
Attack surface
Network
Privileges required
Low: a basic authenticated account is required
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low: no specialised conditions are recorded
Security boundary
Changed: exploitation can affect a different security authority
Weakness
?CWE means Common Weakness Enumeration: a standard category for the underlying weakness.
CWE-59 ↗

CWE-59: Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following'). The product attempts to access a file based on the filename, but it does not properly prevent that filename from identifying a link or shortcut that resolves to an unintended resource.

CVSS vector
?CVSS means Common Vulnerability Scoring System. The vector records the metric values used to calculate technical severity.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Common Vulnerability Scoring System 3.1: the compact vector below is decoded into plain language.

AVNetworkAttack vector: The vulnerable component can be reached over a network.ACLowAttack complexity: No specialised conditions are required beyond attacker-controlled input.PRLowPrivileges required: The attacker needs basic user-level privileges.UINoneUser interaction: No action by another user is required.SChangedScope: The attack can affect a component governed by a different security authority.CHighConfidentiality impact: A successful attack can cause a major loss.IHighIntegrity impact: A successful attack can cause a major loss.AHighAvailability impact: A successful attack can cause a major loss.
Post-exploitation / living off the land
No specific living-off-the-land technique is confirmed in the structured sources. Monitor normal administration tools for activity inconsistent with the affected service's baseline.
NetworkCWE-59
A

Official authority intelligence

Only matched European and national findings are included. Language selectors and unavailable sources are omitted.

ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-31824Official EUVD mapping

A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing the console socket with a symlink to the host's container runtime (CRI-O) socket, an attacker can hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This enables the attacker to access any Unix socket on the host, potentially leading to full control of the node and the entire cluster.

Official EUVD record ↗
BSI · German · WID-SEC-2026-1680Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization: Schwachstelle ermöglicht Privilegieneskalation

Ein entfernter, authentisierter Angreifer kann eine Schwachstelle in Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization ausnutzen, um seine Privilegien zu erhöhen.

Official advisory ↗
Cyber Security Agency of Singapore · English · CSA-SB-20260527Security Bulletin 27 May 2026

The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore included this CVE in its official Security Bulletin 27 May 2026, published on 27 May 2026. Open the linked bulletin for the product, severity and reference information published in that issue.

Official advisory ↗
CERT-FR · French · CERTFR-2026-AVI-0685Multiples vulnérabilités dans Microsoft Azure Linux

De multiples vulnérabilités ont été découvertes dans Microsoft Azure Linux. Elles permettent à un attaquant de provoquer un problème de sécurité non spécifié par l'éditeur.

Official advisory ↗
03

Patch and workaround

Operational remediation based on structured source evidence.

Status
?Patch availability is based on structured fixed-version fields and authoritative update references. If no fix is verified, check the vendor advisory before making a change.
Patch available
Affected
Fixed
Action
To install this SUSE Security Update use the SUSE recommended installation methods like YaST online_update or "zypper patch".
Workaround
No verified workaround is recorded. If business-safe, reduce exposure to the affected interface and allow only trusted sources until authoritative guidance is available.
04

Evidence and provenance

Published 26 May 2026 · Last source change 10 Sept 2026, 12:05 UTC · CWE-59 · Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following')

CVE recordCVE.org · 5.2
CVSS sourceCNA
EPSS source
?The date BlackTree first stored a score for this CVE from the daily FIRST EPSS feed.
FIRST · tracked since 2026-08-14
European sourceENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-31824
Product sourceVendor CSAF · SUSE Product Security Team
Remediation sourceVendor CSAF · SUSE Product Security Team
CWE sourceCNA
NVD statusNVD awaiting enrichment

Missing structured fields: affected product. Missing data is not evidence of low risk; review the primary advisory.

Material change intelligence

What changed after publication

View recent updates ↗
  1. Affected versionsThe structured affected or fixed version information changed.
    Before
    < 1.6.6; 1.7.0 < 1.7.4; 1.8.0 < 1.8.3 · Fixed: 1779375376 < *; 1778999881 < *; 1779321599 < *; 1778859977 < *; 1778861274 < *; 1779174925 < *; 1778887155 < *
    After
    < 1.6.6, 1.7.0 < 1.7.4, 1.8.0 < 1.8.3 · Fixed: Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.12: 1779375376 < *; Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.13: 1778999881 < *; Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.14: 1779321599 < *; Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.15: 1778859977 < *; Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.16: 1778861274 < *; Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.17: 1779174925 < *; Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.18: 1778887155 < *; Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.19: 1779289071 < *; Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.20: 1779288737 < *; Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.21: 1779420069 < *
    CNA ↗
  2. Affected versionsThe structured affected or fixed version information changed.
    Before
    See the vendor and CVE records for the affected range. · Fixed: 1779375376 < *; 1778999881 < *; 1779321599 < *; 1778859977 < *; 1778861274 < *; 1779174925 < *; 1778887155 < *; 1779289071 < *
    After
    < 1.6.6; 1.7.0 < 1.7.4; 1.8.0 < 1.8.3 · Fixed: 1779375376 < *; 1778999881 < *; 1779321599 < *; 1778859977 < *; 1778861274 < *; 1779174925 < *; 1778887155 < *
    CNA ↗
Material fields only · duplicate refreshes suppressed · history retained for the configured operational retention period
CVE published
Fixed release or patch reference recorded
ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-31824↗Vendor CSAF · SUSE Product Security Team↗CVE authority or vendor reference · Red Hat RHSA-2026:20720↗Official CVE record (CNA and ADP data)↗NVD record↗
Technical terms and abbreviations used in this report
CVE
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures: the public identifier for one disclosed vulnerability.
CVSS
Common Vulnerability Scoring System: a technical severity framework; it is not patching priority by itself.
EPSS
Exploit Prediction Scoring System: FIRST's estimate of the probability that exploitation activity will be observed in the next 30 days; it is a forecast, not confirmation.
CWE
Common Weakness Enumeration: the standard category describing the underlying software or hardware weakness.
CNA
CVE Numbering Authority: an organisation authorised to assign and publish CVE records.
CISA ADP
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Authorized Data Publisher: structured enrichment added to a CVE record.
NVD
National Vulnerability Database: NIST's enrichment service for CVE records.
CERT / CSIRT
A computer security incident response team that publishes warnings or coordinates incident response.
PoC
Proof of concept: public material that demonstrates or helps reproduce exploitation.
CSAF
Common Security Advisory Framework: a machine-readable format for security advisories.
LoTL
Living off the land: abuse of legitimate tools or system functions during an attack.
Free version - for non-commercial use only.CVE-2026-7374 · cve.blacktree.nl