CVE-2026-12080 Qemu-kvm: qemu-guest-agent: local privilege escalation via symlink attack in guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys
Local attackers can escalate privileges to root via symlink attacks in QEMU Guest Agent, requiring an external management layer to trigger the vulnerability.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- A user has to click or open something
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-12080?
CVE-2026-12080 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published on 20 Jul 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, and only if a user opens a file or follows a link.
Official description
A flaw was found in the QEMU Guest Agent (qga). A local unprivileged user can exploit a vulnerability in the guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys command handler by manipulating symbolic links. This can occur either through a deterministic directory-symlink bypass or a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) file-symlink race. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to gain ownership of arbitrary root-owned files or directories, leading to root access. This vulnerability requires an external management layer (e.g., libvirt) to trigger the affected code path.
Weakness: CWE-61
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-12080?
Linux distribution packages (1)
qemu-kvm Rocky Linux:9 | All versions | 7:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 |
How do I fix CVE-2026-12080?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.
Is CVE-2026-12080 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-12080 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Public exploit code: 1 proofs of concept on GitHub.
Sources
Also known as AZL-93006, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-12080, ECHO-3b36-2d36-acbd, GHSA-9xqq-92hv-jj34, OESA-2026-4084, OESA-2026-4085 and 4 more.