CVE-2026-63622 Libvirt: swtpm privilege escalation via symlink following
High 7.8
Published
Updated
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-63622 and fix it if it is affected.
What it is: CVE-2026-63622 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published on 10 Aug 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Exploitation: There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-63622 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Affected product: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10. No package-level version data is available, so check the vendor advisory linked from the reference page.
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-2026-63622/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-63622/index.md)
A local attacker can exploit symlink following in libvirt to escalate privileges from the swtpm sandbox to root-level file ownership control.
- 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-2026-63622?
CVE-2026-63622 is a high-severity path traversal vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, published on 10 Aug 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 libvirt. A local attacker, specifically a process running as the confined `swtpm` user, could exploit a symlink-following vulnerability in the `virFileChownFiles()` function. By planting a symbolic link within the `swtpm` state directory, the attacker could trick the root-level libvirt daemon into changing the ownership of an arbitrary file to the `swtpm` user. This allows for privilege escalation from the `swtpm` sandbox to root-level file ownership control.
Weakness: CWE-59
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-63622?
Linux distribution packages (40)
libvirt Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-client Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-client-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-client-qemu Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-common Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-common-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-config-network Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-config-nwfilter Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-interface Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-interface-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-network Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-network-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-nodedev Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-nodedev-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-nwfilter Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-nwfilter-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-qemu Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-qemu-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-secret Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-secret-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-core Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-core-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-disk Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-disk-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-iscsi Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-iscsi-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-logical Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-logical-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-mpath Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-mpath-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-rbd Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-rbd-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-scsi Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-driver-storage-scsi-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-kvm Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-lock Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
libvirt-daemon-lock-debuginfo Red Hat:enterprise_linux_eus:10.0 | All versions | 0:10.10.0-8.11.el10_0 |
How do I fix CVE-2026-63622?
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-2026-63622 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-63622 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as AZL-95616, BELL-CVE-2026-63622, DEBIAN-CVE-2026-63622, GHSA-r329-fjhj-3cw3, RHSA-2026:64773, RHSA-2026:65515 and 3 more.