# CVE-2026-86836: Race condition in Eclipse Ankaios

> Local attackers can hijack workload control interfaces via race conditions in shared directories, enabling unauthorized state modification and privilege escalation.

- **Severity:** High 8.4 (`CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:H`)
- **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:** No
- **Published:** 14 Sep 2026
- **Updated:** 15 Sep 2026
- **Also known as:** GHSA-x544-76qg-7v6p

## What is CVE-2026-86836?

CVE-2026-86836 is a high-severity vulnerability in Eclipse Ankaios, published on 14 Sep 2026. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.

### Official description

In Eclipse Ankaios versions 0.1.0 through 1.0.2, the agent creates workload files and Control Interface named pipes (FIFOs) under a predictable path derived from the agent name and a hash of the workload's runtime configuration. If a directory or FIFO already exists at that path when the agent (re)starts, the agent reuses it based only on an existence and/or file-type check, without validating its owner or permissions. A local, unprivileged user with write access to the same base directory (by default under `$TMPDIR/ankaios`, e.g. shared `/tmp`) can pre-create this path hierarchy, including the two Control Interface FIFOs, before the agent starts. The agent then treats the attacker-owned FIFOs as the legitimate Control Interface for the targeted workload. The attacker can complete the Control Interface handshake and issue requests using that workload's configured `controlInterfaceAccess` permissions, allowing impersonation of the workload and, depending on its configured permissions, unauthorized reading and/or modification of the cluster's desired state.

Weakness: CWE-379 (Creation of Temporary File in Directory with Insecure Permissions), CWE-367 (Time-of-check Time-of-use (TOCTOU) Race Condition), CWE-276 (Incorrect Default Permissions)

## Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-86836?


## How do I fix CVE-2026-86836?

No fix has been published for CVE-2026-86836 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.

## Is CVE-2026-86836 being exploited?

There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-86836 in the wild and no public exploit code.

## Fix prompt for AI coding agents

```text
Check this codebase for CVE-2026-86836 and fix it if it is affected.

What it is: CVE-2026-86836 is a high-severity vulnerability in Eclipse Ankaios, published on 14 Sep 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-2026-86836 in the wild and no public exploit code.

Affected product: Eclipse Ankaios. 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-2026-86836/ (Markdown: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-86836/index.md)
```

## Sources

- CVE record: https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-86836
- NVD: https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-86836
- OSV: https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-86836

---
From sbomify Insights: https://insights.sbomify.com/CVE-2026-86836/
Summaries are generated and may contain mistakes; the official description above is the record.