Cyber Resilience

CVE-2026-41326

Katacontainers Confidential Containers 0.9.0 – 0.20.0

Published
24 April 2026
Modified
15 July 2026
Patch / advisory
View advisory
CVSS Score v4 8.2
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:H/SI:N/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
EPSS Score 0.0027 19th percentile
Risk Priority 35 floored blend · peak EPSS

Summary

CVE-2026-41326 is a high-severity UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following (CWE-61) vulnerability in Katacontainers Confidential Containers. Its CVSS base score is 8.2 (High).

Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Path Interception (T1034); ranked at the 19th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

The strongest mitigations our analysis identified map to AC-24 (Access Control Decisions) and AC-3 (Access Enforcement) — see the control section below for these in your framework.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

A01:2025 Broken Access Control

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. From v3.4.0 to v3.28.0, an oversight in the CopyFile policy (and perhaps the CopyFile handler) allows untrusted hosts to…

more

write to arbitrary locations inside the guest workload image. This can be used to overwrite binaries inside the guest and exfiltrate data from containers; even those running inside CVMs. This vulnerability is fixed in v3.29.0.

CWE(s)
CWE-61CWE-1220

Related Threats

MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise Techniques

T1034 Path Interception Persistence
**This technique has been deprecated.
attack.mitre.org →
T1574.010 Services File Permissions Weakness Stealth
Adversaries may execute their own malicious payloads by hijacking the binaries used by services.
attack.mitre.org →
T1078 Valid Accounts Stealth
Adversaries may obtain and abuse credentials of existing accounts as a means of gaining Initial Access, Persistence, Privilege Escalation, or Defense Evasion.
attack.mitre.org →
T1548 Abuse Elevation Control Mechanism Privilege Escalation
Adversaries may circumvent mechanisms designed to control privilege elevation to gain higher-level permissions.
attack.mitre.org →
T1556 Modify Authentication Process Defense Impairment
Adversaries may modify authentication mechanisms and processes to access user credentials or enable otherwise unwarranted access to accounts.
attack.mitre.org →
Derived from this CVE’s CWE(s) via the direct CWE→ATT&CK cross-walk.

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2026-24834Same product: Katacontainers Kata Containers
CVE-2026-24054Same product: Katacontainers Kata Containers
CVE-2026-44210Same product: Katacontainers Kata Containers
CVE-2026-6388Shared CWE-1220
CVE-2023-31342Shared CWE-1220
CVE-2026-62721Shared CWE-1220
CVE-2025-48517Shared CWE-1220
CVE-2024-21947Shared CWE-1220
CVE-2026-33825Shared CWE-1220
CVE-2023-32259Shared CWE-1220

Affected Assets

katacontainers
confidential containers
0.9.0 — 0.20.0
katacontainers
kata containers
3.4.0 — 3.29.0

Mitigating Controls

Control response

Prevent
Stop it (NIST 800-53)

—

Detect
Catch it (NIST detect / respond)

—

Harden
Shrink the surface (DISA STIG)
  • 6 hardening rules · 6 OS baselines
Validate
Prove the fix (OWASP ASVS)
  • V16.4.2
  • V8.4.2
  • V11.7.1
  • V13.2.4

Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI

AC-6 Least Privilege good match

Least privilege explicitly demands that only the minimum necessary accesses are granted, eliminating the broad permissions that define this weakness.

AC-24 Access Control Decisions good match

AC-24 requires access decisions to be applied precisely and unambiguously to every request, structurally blocking insufficiently granular policies.

AC-3 Access Enforcement good match

Access enforcement must resolve the actual target of any file reference and apply authorizations to it, directly stopping symlink traversal to unauthorized objects.

AC-4 Information Flow Enforcement partial match

Information-flow enforcement on file operations must follow the resolved target rather than the link name, blocking unauthorized data movement via symlinks.

Mitigating Controls (NIST CSF 2.0) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→CSF cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

PR.IR-01 mostly match
prevents

PR.IR-01's segmentation + zero-trust rules directly enforce minimum-necessary access at network boundaries, removing most instances of overly broad policy; CWE-1220 can still exist in application-layer or intra-segment controls that this single outcome does not address.

PR.PS-06 mostly match
prevents

Secure SDLC practices directly prevent introduction of symlink-following flaws in file-handling code.

ID.RA-01 partial match
prevents

Vulnerability identification can discover existing symlink issues but does not prevent or remediate them in code.

PR.AA-05 partial match
prevents

Least-privilege access policies can limit damage from symlink attacks but do not address the coding flaw itself.

DE.AE-06 none match
degrades

CWE-1220 permits unauthorized access to sensitive assets but neither prevents nor impairs the delivery of adverse-event information to authorized recipients.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

A.8.29 Security testing in development and acceptance mostly match
finds

Security testing can detect symlink-following vulnerabilities before deployment, covering most of the weakness.

A.8.3 Information access restriction mostly match
degrades

Directly requires information-access restriction at the level of individual assets and operations, addressing the granularity gap.

A.5.15 Access control partial match
prevents

Establishes the overarching access-control policy whose granularity directly determines whether the weakness exists.

A.5.18 Access rights partial match
prevents

Defines the assignment and review of access rights; insufficient granularity in those rights is the root of CWE-1220.

A.8.2 Privileged access rights partial match
prevents

Specifies management of privileged access rights, where overly broad privileges are a common manifestation of the weakness.

A.8.27 Secure system architecture and engineering principles partial match
prevents

Secure-architecture principles require safe file-handling and canonicalization, directly addressing symlink attacks.

Hardening callouts derived

Configuration rules from DISA STIG baselines that bear on weaknesses of the type cited by this CVE. Each rule is shown with the relationship its mapping actually records, against the CWE it was authored against. Derived via CVE→CWE over `controls_xwalks` (authoritative rows only; rows rated `none` are excluded).

Oracle Linux 8 (1 rule)
  • V-248577 OL 8 must enable kernel parameters to enforce Discretionary Access Control (DAC) on symlinks. prevents CWE-61
Windows Server 2016 (1 rule)
  • V-225025 Local accounts with blank passwords must be restricted to prevent access from the network. prevents CWE-1220
Windows Server 2022 (1 rule)
  • V-254446 Windows Server 2022 must prevent local accounts with blank passwords from being used from the network. prevents CWE-1220

References