A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing the console socket with a symlink to the host's container runtime (CRI-O) socket, an attacker can hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This enables the attacker to access any Unix socket on the host, potentially leading to full control of the node and the entire cluster.

Project Subscriptions

Vendors Products
Container Native Virtualization Subscribe
Advisories

No advisories yet.

Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.


Workaround

Update cluster RBAC to not allow exec into virt-launcher pods.

History

Tue, 26 May 2026 15:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Tue, 26 May 2026 13:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing the console socket with a symlink to the host's container runtime (CRI-O) socket, an attacker can hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This enables the attacker to access any Unix socket on the host, potentially leading to full control of the node and the entire cluster.
Title Kubevirt: kubevirt virt-handler: privilege escalation and node compromise via symlink following vulnerability
First Time appeared Redhat
Redhat container Native Virtualization
Weaknesses CWE-59
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:container_native_virtualization:4
Vendors & Products Redhat
Redhat container Native Virtualization
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 9.9, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H'}


Projects

Sign in to view the affected projects.

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: redhat

Published:

Updated: 2026-05-26T13:37:41.137Z

Reserved: 2026-04-29T06:46:44.106Z

Link: CVE-2026-7374

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-05-26T13:37:38.502Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-05-26T14:16:40.717

Modified: 2026-05-26T14:16:40.717

Link: CVE-2026-7374

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-05-26T15:15:08Z

Weaknesses