Medium · published September 18, 2026
A flaw was found in cockpit-machines. This vulnerability allows a local attacker to expose sensitive Virtual Machine (VM) credentials, including plaintext passwords, by inspecting process command-line arguments during VM creation or installation. The cockpit-machines component passes password values directly on the command line, making them visible to other local users on systems where process arguments are not restricted. Successful exploitation leads to information disclosure, potentially compromising VM access.