CVE-2026-41579
runc: Malicious image with /dev symlink can trigger limited host filesystem integrity violations
- 3.3LowCVSS base score
- 0.19%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 92% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification. In versions prior to 1.3.6, 1.4.0-rc.1, 1.4.0-rc.12, 1.5.0-rc.1, and 1.5.0-rc.1, when setting up the container rootfs, setupPtmx and setupDevSymlinks call os.Remove and os.Symlink with a filepath.Join string which allow an image with /dev as a symlink to trick runc into deleting files called ptmx on the host or creating a hardcoded set of symlinks with specific names and targets in an arbitrary pre-existing host directory. This issue is not exploitable under Docker, because Docker creates a top-level read-only layer that masks any malicious /dev symlink present in the container image — unlike some other Linux container tooling, whose higher-level runtimes built on runc remain exposed to exploitation via a malicious image. This issue has been fixed in versions 1.3.6, 1.4.3 and 1.5.0.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 2 months later
· 2 months later
Published
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Low3.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | Low3.3 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.19% · top 92% of all CVEs (11 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Low 3.3.
Affected products
- affected < 1.3.6
- affected >= 1.4.0-rc.1, < 1.4.3
- affected >= 1.5.0-rc.1, < 1.5.0-rc.3
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Gogithub.com/opencontainers/runcGHSA-xjvp-4fhw-gc47 (opens in a new tab)
References
References2
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2026-40859 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-xjvp-4fhw-gc47 (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2026-41579)Record last updated .