GHSA-7jcp-v9w4-wjmg is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.9) CWE-59 vulnerability in kubevirt.io/kubevirt. A fix is available for kubevirt.io/kubevirt — see the affected versions and patch details below.
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-7jcp-v9w4-wjmg.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-7jcp-v9w4-wjmg by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 384,189 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
kubevirt.io/kubevirt🐹kubevirt.io/kubevirt🐹kubevirt.io/kubevirtReal-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
A flaw was found in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. This vulnerability allows an authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace to exploit improper symlink validation when connecting to virtual machine console sockets. By replacing the console socket with a symlink to the host's container runtime (CRI-O) socket, an attacker can hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This enables the attacker to access any Unix socket on the host, potentially leading to full control of the node and the entire cluster.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | kubevirt.io/kubevirt | ≥ 1.8.0-alpha.0&&< 1.8.3 | 1.8.3go get kubevirt.io/kubevirt@v1.8.3 |
| 🐹Go | kubevirt.io/kubevirt | ≥ 1.7.0-alpha.0&&< 1.7.4 | 1.7.4go get kubevirt.io/kubevirt@v1.7.4 |
| 🐹Go | kubevirt.io/kubevirt | all versions | 1.6.6go get kubevirt.io/kubevirt@v1.6.6 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for kubevirt.io/kubevirt, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update kubevirt.io/kubevirt to 1.8.3 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-7jcp-v9w4-wjmg 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.
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.
This is an Important privilege escalation flaw in KubeVirt's virt-handler component. An authenticated OpenShift user with edit permissions in a single namespace can exploit improper symlink validation to hijack virt-handler's privileged connection. This allows access to any Unix socket on the host, leading to…
Update cluster RBAC to not allow exec into virt-launcher pods.Source: Red Hat security advisory for GHSA-7jcp-v9w4-wjmg (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.12 | container-native-virtualization/virt-handler:1779375376 | RHSA-2026:20825 |
| Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.13 | container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9:1778999881 | RHSA-2026:20886 |
| Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.14 | container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9:1779321599 | RHSA-2026:20890 |
| Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.15 | container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9:1778859977 | RHSA-2026:20866 |
| Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.16 | container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9:1778861274 | RHSA-2026:20975 |
| Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.17 | container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9:1779174925 | RHSA-2026:20763 |
| Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.18 | container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9:1778887155 | RHSA-2026:20736 |
| Red Hat Container Native Virtualization 4.19 | container-native-virtualization/virt-handler-rhel9:1779289071 | RHSA-2026:20767 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-7jcp-v9w4-wjmg in your dependencies?
Find it across Go, including transitive dependencies.