Vulnerability Details CVE-2026-23954
Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. Versions 6.21.0 and below allow a user with the ability to launch a container with a custom image (e.g a member of the ‘incus’ group) to use directory traversal or symbolic links in the templating functionality to achieve host arbitrary file read, and host arbitrary file write. This ultimately results in arbitrary command execution on the host. When using an image with a metadata.yaml containing templates, both the source and target paths are not checked for symbolic links or directory traversal. This can also be exploited in IncusOS. A fix is planned for versions 6.0.6 and 6.21.0, but they have not been released at the time of publication.
Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score
EPSS Score 0.001
EPSS Ranking 34.8%
CVSS Severity
CVSS v3 Score 8.7
References
- https://github.com/lxc/incus/blob/HEAD/internal/server/instance/drivers/driver_lxc.go#L7215
- https://github.com/lxc/incus/blob/HEAD/internal/server/instance/drivers/driver_lxc.go#L7294
- https://github.com/lxc/incus/security/advisories/GHSA-7f67-crqm-jgh7
- https://github.com/user-attachments/files/24473599/template_arbitrary_write.sh
- https://github.com/user-attachments/files/24473601/templates_arbitrary_write.patch
Products affected by CVE-2026-23954
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:0.1.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:0.2.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:0.3.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:0.4.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:0.5.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:0.5.1
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:0.6.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:0.7.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.0.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.0.1
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.0.2
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.0.3
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.0.4
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.0.5
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.1.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.10.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.10.1
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.11.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.12.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.13.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.14.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.15.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.16.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.17.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.18.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.19.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.19.1
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.2.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.20.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.3.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.4.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.5.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.6.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.7.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.8.0
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cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:6.9.0