CVE-2026-13622: Kubevirt: virt-handler-rhel9: kubevirt: virt-handler migration proxy follows symlinks allowing container escape to host

Vulnerability summary

CVE-2026-13622 is a high (CVSS 8.8) vulnerability in kubevirt1.8&distro=openSUSE Tumbleweed. EPSS estimates a 0.20% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 10.1% of scored vulnerabilities.

Timeline

1. 12-08-2026
   PublishedVulnerability first disclosed.
2. 21-09-2026
   Last modifiedVulnerability information updated.

Description

A symlink following vulnerability was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler migration proxy. During live migration, virt-handler dials Unix sockets inside the target virt-launcher pod via /proc/<pid>/root/ paths using net.Dial() without symlink protection. These socket paths reside in qemu-owned directories writable by the virt-launcher user. An attacker with namespace edit and pods/exec permissions can replace a migration proxy socket with a symlink to the host CRI-O socket. Because virt-handler runs as root in the host mount namespace, absolute symlink targets resolve against the host filesystem, and the bidirectional io.Copy proxy relays attacker-controlled bytes to the container runtime, enabling full node compromise.

• CWE-22Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted DirectoryThe product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory.