CVE-2026-41326 Kata Containers: CopyFile Policy Subversion via Symlinks
Attackers can exploit symlink handling in CopyFile policy to write arbitrary files inside guest VMs, enabling binary overwrites and data exfiltration.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2026-41326?
CVE-2026-41326 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in kata-containers, published on 24 Apr 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. From v3.4.0 to v3.28.0, an oversight in the CopyFile policy (and perhaps the CopyFile handler) allows untrusted hosts to write to arbitrary locations inside the guest workload image. This can be used to overwrite binaries inside the guest and exfiltrate data from containers; even those running inside CVMs. This vulnerability is fixed in v3.29.0.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-41326?
3 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers. It affects 2 products.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers Go | All versions | 0.0.0-20260422180503-1b9e49eb2763 |
github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers Go | All versions | 0.0.0-20260422180503-1b9e49eb2763 |
github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers Go | All versions | 0.0.0-20260422180503-1b9e49eb2763 |
Products include Katacontainers Confidential Containers, Katacontainers Kata Containers.
How do I fix CVE-2026-41326?
Upgrade github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers to 0.0.0-20260422180503-1b9e49eb2763 or later.
Upgrade, and resolve every user-supplied path against an allowed base folder before opening it. More about Path traversal.
Is CVE-2026-41326 being exploited?
It is not confirmed as exploited in the wild, but public exploit code for CVE-2026-41326 exists.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-q49m-57vm-c8cc, GO-2026-5563.