CVE-2026-13622 Kubevirt: virt-handler-rhel9: kubevirt: virt-handler migration proxy follows symlinks allowing container escape to host
Attackers can escape containers to compromise hosts by exploiting symlink following in KubeVirt's migration proxy, requiring namespace edit permissions.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-13622?
CVE-2026-13622 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.12, published on 12 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
A symlink following vulnerability was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler migration proxy. During live migration, virt-handler dials Unix sockets inside the target virt-launcher pod via /proc/<pid>/root/ paths using net.Dial() without symlink protection. These socket paths reside in qemu-owned directories writable by the virt-launcher user. An attacker with namespace edit and pods/exec permissions can replace a migration proxy socket with a symlink to the host CRI-O socket. Because virt-handler runs as root in the host mount namespace, absolute symlink targets resolve against the host filesystem, and the bidirectional io.Copy proxy relays attacker-controlled bytes to the container runtime, enabling full node compromise.
Weakness: CWE-22
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-13622?
Linux distribution packages (2)
kubevirt SUSE:Linux Enterprise Module for Containers 15 SP7 | All versions | 1.7.4-150700.3.36.1 |
kubevirt1.8 openSUSE:Tumbleweed | All versions | 1.8.4-6.1 |
How do I fix CVE-2026-13622?
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-2026-13622 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-13622 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-95943, GHSA-4336-pf6g-hp94, SUSE-SU-2026:3604-1, openSUSE-SU-2026:12227-1.