CVE-2026-12080
Qemu-kvm: qemu-guest-agent: local privilege escalation via symlink attack in guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 7.3 High
- Published
- Jul 20, 2026
- Updated
- Oct 30, 2026
- Reserved
- Jun 12, 2026
Description
A flaw was found in the QEMU Guest Agent (qga). A local unprivileged user can exploit a vulnerability in the guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys command handler by manipulating symbolic links. This can occur either through a deterministic directory-symlink bypass or a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) file-symlink race. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to gain ownership of arbitrary root-owned files or directories, leading to root access. This vulnerability requires an external management layer (e.g., libvirt) to trigger the affected code path.
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 7.3 High | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H | redhat |
Weaknesses
- CWE-61 UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9Red Hat |
|
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10Red Hat | |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6Red Hat | |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Red Hat | |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7Red Hat | |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8Red Hat | |
Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA 26Red Hat | |
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4Red Hat | |
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4Red Hat | |
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5Red Hat |
References
- RHSA-2026:88421vendor-advisory
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-12080vdb-entry
- RHBZ#2499603issue-tracking
- https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/work_items/3929
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