GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.2) Incorrect Default Permissions vulnerability in github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Lima: An arbitrary user in a QEMU VM could gain the root privilege in the VM via the guest agent socket
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 363,908 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2Real-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
Impact
On an instance of Lima running with qemu driver, an arbitrary user in the VM could access /run/lima-guestagent.sock when the guest agent is enabled.
This could result in running an arbitrary command with the root privileges in the VM (not on the host), as lima-guestagent.sock provides the tunneling service for an arbitrary address, including a Unix socket address for privileged daemons like D-Bus.
This vulnerability is not exploitable on vz driver, as the guest agent uses vsocks instead of Unix sockets.
Patches
Patched in Lima v2.1.3 (8a45892378d22f40505c31a38f786a07701b6d50)
[!NOTE] The default user account in the VM can still run an arbitrary command as the root via the guest agent socket. This is not a vulnerability, as the user can already run an arbitrary command with
sudoby design.
Workarounds
- On macOS hosts, use
vzdriver instead ofqemu(limactl create --vm-type=vz. Default since v1.0.) - Or, disable the guest agent (
limactl create --plain)
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 | all versions | 2.1.3 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 to 2.1.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.