Description
A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing the console socket with a symlink to the host's container runtime (CRI-O) socket, an attacker can hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This enables the attacker to access any Unix socket on the host, potentially leading to full control of the node and the entire cluster.
References10
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20720
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20736
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20763
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20767
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20782
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20825
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20866
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20886
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20890
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:20975
Metrics
- CVSS 3.1
-
9.9
CRITICAL
Score source: CNA
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H - EPSS — exploit probability
- 1% percentile: 55 · as of 14 November 2026
- CWE
- CWE-59
Could this be exploited in your environment?
A patch closes the known hole. A penetration test shows what an attacker can still reach — with proof.