CVE-2026-13218 Kubevirt: kubevirt: symlink following in writetocachedfile allows host file overwrite from virt-launcher

What is CVE-2026-13218?

CVE-2026-13218 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4, published on 25 Jun 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

Official description

A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler network cache handling. The WriteToCachedFile function writes data to a launcher-rooted path using os.WriteFile and os.Chown without symlink protection. A user with access to the virt-launcher container can plant a symlink at the cache file path, causing virt-handler to follow it and overwrite an arbitrary host file with JSON content and change its ownership.

Weakness: CWE-61

Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-13218?

It affects 2 products.

Products include Kubevirt Kubevirt, Redhat Openshift Virtualization.

How do I fix CVE-2026-13218?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-13218 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.

Is CVE-2026-13218 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-13218 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Other vulnerabilities in Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4

• CVE-2020-14316 Privilege Escalation in kubevirt Critical 9.9
• CVE-2022-1798 Path Traversal vulnerability in Kubevirt High 8.7
• CVE-2025-64324 KubeVirt Vulnerable to Arbitrary Host File Read and Write High 8.5
• CVE-2023-26484 On a compromised KubeVirt node, the virt-handler service account can be used to modify all node specs High 8.2
• CVE-2026-13201 Path traversal in Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.12 High 7.3

Sources

• CVE record
• NVD
• OSV
• GitHub advisory
• How this page is made

Also known as AZL-91463, GHSA-q3jc-42cq-33fj, MINI-77qf-fjgh-jqc5, MINI-792p-4qpf-jp4w.