CVE-2026-23954
Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. Versions 6.21.0 and below allow a user with the ability to launch a container with a custom image (e.g a member of the ‘incus’ group) to use directory traversal or symbolic links in the templating functionality to achieve host arbitrary file read, and host arbitrary file write. This ultimately results in arbitrary command execution on the host. When using an image with a metadata.yaml containing templates, both the source and target paths are not checked for symbolic links or directory traversal. This can also be exploited in IncusOS. A fix is planned for versions 6.0.6 and 6.21.0, but they have not been released at the time of publication.
EPSS 0.77% · 53.1th percentile
Risk Scores
Affected Products
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| lxc | incus | >= 6.1.0, <= 6.20.0, <= 6.0.5, >= 6.1.0, <= 6.20.0 |
| github.com | lxc/incus/v6/cmd/incusd | 0, 0 |
| linuxcontainers | incus | 6.1.0, 0, 0 |
Timeline
- Jan 22, 2026 CVE Published
- Jan 22, 2026 PoC Published
- Jan 22, 2026 PoC Published
- Jan 23, 2026 EPSS Score
- Jan 23, 2026 PoC Published
- Jan 23, 2026 PoC Published
- Jan 24, 2026 PoC Published
- Jan 24, 2026 PoC Published
- Jan 24, 2026 PoC Published
- Jan 26, 2026 EPSS Score
- Jan 29, 2026 EPSS Score
- Jan 30, 2026 Security Advisory
References
- https://github.com/lxc/incus/blob/HEAD/internal/server/instance/drivers/driver_lxc.go#L7294 url
- https://github.com/user-attachments/files/24473599/template_arbitrary_write.sh url
- https://github.com/lxc/incus/security/advisories/GHSA-7f67-crqm-jgh7 exploit
- https://github.com/user-attachments/files/24473601/templates_arbitrary_write.patch patch
- https://github.com/lxc/incus package
- https://github.com/lxc/incus/blob/HEAD/internal/server/instance/drivers/driver_lxc.go#L7215 url
- https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23954 advisory