CVE-2026-90894 Parallels Desktop local privilege escalation via appliance extract argument injection
Local attackers can inject commands into tar arguments via appliance paths to execute arbitrary code as root in Parallels Desktop.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- None listed
What is CVE-2026-90894?
CVE-2026-90894 is a high-severity command injection vulnerability in Parallels Desktop for Mac, 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
Parallels Desktop runs prl_disp_service as root. Local clients reach it on the world-writable socket /var/run/prl_disp_service.socket. PrlSrv_LoginLocal accepts peer credentials. No Parallels signature. No admin group.
After login, PrlSrv_InstallAppliance lets you pick the appliance folder (sVmParentPath). The daemon unpacks with one string, tar -xf "%1" -C "%2", then Qt QProcess::splitCommand chops that string into words. A quote in the folder name closes early. The leftover text becomes extra tar flags. macOS tar --use-compress-program= runs the named program as root.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2026-90894?
How do I fix CVE-2026-90894?
No fix has been published for CVE-2026-90894 yet. Limit exposure of the affected software until one is available.
Upgrade, and pass arguments to programs as a list instead of through a shell. More about Command injection.
Is CVE-2026-90894 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2026-90894 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Sources
Also known as GHSA-xf5f-rxc7-27mg.