{"id":"CVE-2026-12080","state":"PUBLISHED","title":"Qemu-kvm: qemu-guest-agent: local privilege escalation via symlink attack in guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys","description":"A flaw was found in the QEMU Guest Agent (qga). A local unprivileged user can exploit a vulnerability in the guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys command handler by manipulating symbolic links. This can occur either through a deterministic directory-symlink bypass or a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) file-symlink race. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to gain ownership of arbitrary root-owned files or directories, leading to root access. 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A local unprivileged user can exploit a vulnerability in the guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys command handler by manipulating symbolic links. This can occur either through a deterministic directory-symlink bypass or a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) file-symlink race. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to gain ownership of arbitrary root-owned files or directories, leading to root access. This vulnerability requires an external management layer (e.g., libvirt) to trigger the affected code path."}],"affected":[{"vendor":"Red Hat","product":"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9","packageName":"qemu-kvm","defaultStatus":"affected","versions":[{"version":"17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9","status":"unaffected","lessThan":"*","versionType":"rpm"}],"collectionURL":"https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/","cpes":["cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux:9::appstream"]},{"vendor":"Red Hat","product":"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10","packageName":"qemu-kvm","defaultStatus":"affected","collectionURL":"https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/","cpes":["cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10"]},{"vendor":"Red Hat","product":"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6","packageName":"qemu-kvm","defaultStatus":"unaffected","collectionURL":"https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/","cpes":["cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6"]},{"vendor":"Red Hat","product":"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7","packageName":"qemu-kvm","defaultStatus":"unaffected","collectionURL":"https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/","cpes":["cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7"]},{"vendor":"Red Hat","product":"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7","packageName":"qemu-kvm-ma","defaultStatus":"unaffected","collectionURL":"https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/","cpes":["cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7"]},{"vendor":"Red Hat","product":"Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8","packageName":"virt:rhel/qemu-kvm","defaultStatus":"affected","collectionURL":"https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/","cpes":["cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8"]},{"vendor":"Red Hat","product":"Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA 26","packageName":"qemu-kvm","defaultStatus":"unknown","collectionURL":"https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/","cpes":["cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux_nvidia:"]},{"vendor":"Red Hat","product":"Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4","packageName":"openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-8","defaultStatus":"affected","collectionURL":"https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/","cpes":["cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:4"]},{"vendor":"Red Hat","product":"Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4","packageName":"openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9","defaultStatus":"affected","collectionURL":"https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/","cpes":["cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:4"]},{"vendor":"Red Hat","product":"Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5","packageName":"openshift/ose-rhel-coreos-9","defaultStatus":"affected","collectionURL":"https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/","cpes":["cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:5"]}],"references":[{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:88421","name":"RHSA-2026:88421","tags":["vendor-advisory","x_refsource_REDHAT"]},{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-12080","tags":["vdb-entry","x_refsource_REDHAT"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2499603","name":"RHBZ#2499603","tags":["issue-tracking","x_refsource_REDHAT"]},{"url":"https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/work_items/3929"}],"metrics":[{"other":{"content":{"value":"Important","namespace":"https://access.redhat.com/security/updates/classification/"},"type":"Red Hat severity rating"}},{"cvssV3_1":{"attackComplexity":"LOW","attackVector":"LOCAL","availabilityImpact":"HIGH","baseScore":7.3,"baseSeverity":"HIGH","confidentialityImpact":"HIGH","integrityImpact":"HIGH","privilegesRequired":"LOW","scope":"UNCHANGED","userInteraction":"REQUIRED","vectorString":"CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H","version":"3.1"},"format":"CVSS"}],"problemTypes":[{"descriptions":[{"cweId":"CWE-61","description":"UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following","lang":"en","type":"CWE"}]}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"redhat","orgId":"53f830b8-0a3f-465b-8143-3b8a9948e749","dateUpdated":"2026-10-30T05:41:40.329Z"},"datePublic":"2026-07-09T10:57:00.000Z","x_redhatCweChain":"CWE-61: UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following","workarounds":[{"lang":"en","value":"If the `guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys` command is not required, it can be disabled by adding it to the qemu-guest-agent block list (qemu-ga --block-rpcs). This prevents the vulnerable code path from being reached while preserving all other guest-agent functionality."}],"timeline":[{"lang":"en","time":"2026-07-13T00:00:00.000Z","value":"Reported to Red Hat."},{"lang":"en","time":"2026-07-09T10:57:00.000Z","value":"Made public."}],"credits":[{"lang":"en","value":"Red Hat would like to thank Valentino Paulon for reporting this issue."}],"x_generator":{"engine":"cvelib 1.8.0"}},"adp":[{"title":"CISA ADP Vulnrichment","metrics":[{"other":{"type":"ssvc","content":{"timestamp":"2026-07-20T18:03:34.730903Z","id":"CVE-2026-12080","options":[{"Exploitation":"none"},{"Automatable":"no"},{"Technical Impact":"total"}],"role":"CISA Coordinator","version":"2.0.3"}}}],"providerMetadata":{"shortName":"CISA-ADP","orgId":"134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0","dateUpdated":"2026-07-20T19:08:22.324Z"}}]}}}