CVE-2026-44210CWE-88

CVE-2026-44210

Critical · published July 23, 2026

CVSS v3.1
9.9
EPSS
1%
Percentile
47.7
In the wild
Unconfirmed
What it is

Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. Versions prior to 3.31.0 ship with a default configuration that allows pod creators to inject arbitrary command-line arguments into the virtiofsd process through the `io.katacontainers.config.hypervisor.virtio_fs_extra_args` pod annotation. By injecting `-o source=/` along with `--no-announce-submounts` and `--sandbox=none`, an attacker can override the virtiofsd shared directory to serve the entire host root filesystem into the guest VM. Combined with the `kernel_params` annotation (also enabled by default) to activate the agent debug console, the attacker can mount the host filesystem from inside the VM and read or write any file on the host, including /etc/shadow. Version 3.31.0 patches the issue.

The record
Technical detail
CVSS v3.1
9.9 · CRITICAL
Vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
CVSS v4.0
Not supplied
EPSS
0.00593 · 47.7th percentile
Weakness
CWE-88 · Improper Neutralization of Argument Delimiters in a Command ('Argument Injection')
Published
2026-07-23T22:16Z
Affected products (1)
ProductVersionsFixed in
katacontainers/kata_containers< 3.31.03.31.0
References (3)
EPSS history
Timeline
  • 23 JUL 17:32Z
    Kata Containers have VM Escape via virtiofsd Argument Injection through Default-Enabled Pod Annotations
    cvelistv5