# CVE-2026-33711: Incus vulnerable to local privilege escalation through VM screenshot path > Local attackers can exploit predictable temporary file paths in Incus VM screenshots to modify arbitrary files, potentially escalating privileges or causing denial of service. - **Severity:** Medium 4.7 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P`) - **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:** Yes - **Published:** 26 Mar 2026 - **Updated:** 27 Mar 2026 - **Also known as:** DEBIAN-CVE-2026-33711, GHSA-q9vp-3wcg-8p4x, GO-2026-4885, UBUNTU-CVE-2026-33711 ## What is CVE-2026-33711? CVE-2026-33711 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in lxc incus, published on 26 Mar 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim. ### Official description Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. Incus provides an API to retrieve VM screenshots. That API relies on the use of a temporary file for QEMU to write the screenshot to which is then picked up and sent to the user prior to deletion. As versions prior to 6.23.0 use predictable paths under /tmp for this, an attacker with local access to the system can abuse this mechanism by creating their own symlinks ahead of time. On the vast majority of Linux systems, this will result in a "Permission denied" error when requesting a screenshot. That's because the Linux kernel has a security feature designed to block such attacks, `protected_symlinks`. On the rare systems with this purposefully disabled, it's then possible to trick Incus intro truncating and altering the mode and permissions of arbitrary files on the filesystem, leading to a potential denial of service or possible local privilege escalation. Version 6.23.0 fixes the issue. Weakness: CWE-61 (UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following) ## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-33711? 4 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/lxc/incus/v6 and github.com/lxc/incus. It affects 1 product. | Package | Ecosystem | Affected | Fixed in | | --- | --- | --- | --- | | `github.com/lxc/incus/v6` | Go | All versions | 6.23.0 | | `github.com/lxc/incus/v6` | Go | All versions | 6.23.0 | | `github.com/lxc/incus/v6` | Go | All versions | 6.23.0 | | `github.com/lxc/incus` | Go | All versions | None | Products: Linuxcontainers Incus. ## How do I fix CVE-2026-33711? Upgrade github.com/lxc/incus/v6 to 6.23.0 or later. ## Is CVE-2026-33711 being exploited? It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-33711 exists. ## Other vulnerabilities in lxc incus - [CVE-2026-33897](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-33897/): Incus vulnerable to arbitrary file read and write through pongo templates (critical 10.0) - [CVE-2026-33945](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-33945/): Abitrary file write through systemd-creds option (critical 10.0) - [CVE-2026-33898](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-33898/): Local Incus UI web server vulnerable to nuthentication bypass (high 8.8) - [CVE-2026-23953](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23953/): Incus container environment configuration newline injection (high 8.7) - [CVE-2026-23954](https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-23954/): Incus container image templating arbitrary host file read and write (high 8.7) ## Fix prompt for AI coding agents ```text Check this codebase for CVE-2026-33711 and fix it if it is affected. What it is: CVE-2026-33711 is a medium-severity path traversal vulnerability in lxc incus, published on 26 Mar 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim. Exploitation: It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-33711 exists. Affected packages and fixed versions: - github.com/lxc/incus/v6 (Go): affected all versions; fixed in 6.23.0 - github.com/lxc/incus/v6 (Go): affected all versions; fixed in 6.23.0 - github.com/lxc/incus/v6 (Go): affected all versions; fixed in 6.23.0 - github.com/lxc/incus (Go): affected all versions; no fix listed Task: 1. Search the dependency manifests and lockfiles (for example package.json, package-lock.json, requirements.txt, poetry.lock, uv.lock, pom.xml, build.gradle, go.mod, Cargo.lock, Gemfile.lock) and any Dockerfiles for the affected packages, including transitive dependencies. 2. If an affected version is in use, upgrade it to the fixed version for its release line with the project's package manager, so the lockfile is regenerated. Prefer the smallest upgrade that fixes it. 3. If there is no fix, or the upgrade would break the build, do not guess: explain the risk and the safest workaround instead. 4. Run the tests and summarise what changed and why. 5. If nothing in the project is affected, say so and change nothing. Reference: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-33711/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-33711/index.md) ``` ## Sources - CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-33711 - NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-33711 - OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-33711 --- From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-33711/ Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.