CVE-2026-41579 (GCVE-0-2026-41579)
Vulnerability from cvelistv5 – Published: 2026-07-01 00:02 – Updated: 2026-07-01 13:35
VLAI
EPSS
VEX
Title
runc: Malicious image with /dev symlink can trigger limited host filesystem integrity violations
Summary
runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification. In versions prior to 1.3.6, 1.4.0-rc.1, 1.4.0-rc.12, 1.5.0-rc.1, and 1.5.0-rc.1, when setting up the container rootfs, setupPtmx and setupDevSymlinks call os.Remove and os.Symlink with a filepath.Join string which allow an image with /dev as a symlink to trick runc into deleting files called ptmx on the host or creating a hardcoded set of symlinks with specific names and targets in an arbitrary pre-existing host directory. This issue is not exploitable under Docker, because Docker creates a top-level read-only layer that masks any malicious /dev symlink present in the container image — unlike some other Linux container tooling, whose higher-level runtimes built on runc remain exposed to exploitation via a malicious image. This issue has been fixed in versions 1.3.6, 1.4.3 and 1.5.0.
Severity
SSVC
Exploitation: none
Automatable: no
Technical Impact: partial
CISA Coordinator · CISA-ADP (v2.0.3)
Decision recorded 2026-07-01 13:34 UTC
CWE
- CWE-61 - UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following
Assigner
References
2 references
| URL | Tags |
|---|---|
| https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/security/a… | x_refsource_CONFIRM |
| https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/commit/864… | x_refsource_MISC |
Impacted products
1 product
| Vendor | Product | Version | CPE status | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| opencontainers | runc |
Affected:
< 1.3.6
Affected: >= 1.4.0-rc.1, < 1.4.3 Affected: >= 1.5.0-rc.1, < 1.5.0-rc.3 |
guessed |
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The MITRE ATT&CK techniques below are AI-generated suggestions, inferred from the description of the
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