How severe is GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32?

GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 has a CVSS score of 8.7/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32?

GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 affects the following packages: github.com/lxc/incus/v6 (Go). Ecosystems affected: Go.

How do I fix GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32?

Update github.com/lxc/incus/v6 to 6.21.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 in my Go dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/lxc/incus/v6. 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.

How do I mitigate GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32?

O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32?

GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.5%, placing it in the 37th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32?

GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 is classified as CWE-93 (CWE-93). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 was published on January 22, 2026 and was last updated on March 27, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐹 Go

GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32

HIGH

Incus container environment configuration newline injection

Also known asCVE-2026-23953GO-2026-4359

Published

Jan 22, 2026

Updated

Mar 27, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.5%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk37th percentile+0.44%

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.

Blast Radius

1 pkg affected

🐹github.com/lxc/incus/v6

Real-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

A user with the ability to launch a container with a custom YAML configuration (e.g a member of the ‘incus’ group) can create an environment variable containing newlines, which can be used to add additional configuration items in the container’s lxc.conf due to the newline injection. This can allow adding arbitrary lifecycle hooks, ultimately resulting in arbitrary command execution on the host.

Details

When passing environment variables in the config block of a new container, values are not checked for the presence of newlines [1], which can result in newline injection inside the generated container lxc.conf. This can be used to set arbitrary additional configuration items, such as lxc.hook.pre-start. By exploiting this, a user with the ability to launch a container with an arbitrary config can achieve arbitrary command execution as root on the host.

Exploiting this issue on IncusOS requires a slight modification of the payload to change to a different writable directory for the validation step (e.g /tmp). This can be confirmed with a second container with /tmp mounted from the host (A privileged action for validation only).

[1] https://github.com/lxc/incus/blob/HEAD/internal/server/instance/drivers/driver_lxc.go#L1081

PoC

A proof-of-concept script exploiting this vulnerability can be found attached, named environment_newline_injection.sh, showing arbitrary command execution, which will write a file to the root filesystem (/newline_injection_command_exec_poc)

Manual Reproduction steps:

Launch a new container with a configuration file containing a multiline YAML string as an environment variable value, such as in the listing below.
Observe that the lxc.conf (/run/incus/user-1000_poc/lxc.conf in my case) contains an additional lxc.hook.pre-start item
Observe the creation of the file in the host root directory, with contents proving command execution as root.

incus launch images:alpine/edge --ephemeral poc << EOF
config:
  environment.FOO: |-
    abc
    lxc.hook.pre-start = /bin/sh -c "id > /newline_injection_command_exec_poc"
EOF

Impact

A user with the ability to launch a container with a custom YAML configuration (e.g a member of the ‘incus’ group) can achieve arbitrary command execution on the host.

Attachments

environment_newline_injection.sh environment_newline_injection.patch

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐹Go	`github.com/lxc/incus/v6`	all versions	6.21.0

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/lxc/incus/v6. 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/lxc/incus/v6 to 6.21.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 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-x6jc-phwx-hp32 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-x6jc-phwx-hp32. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Summary A user with the ability to launch a container with a custom YAML configuration (e.g a member of the ‘incus’ group) can create an environment variable containing newlines, which can be used to add additional configuration items in the container’s `lxc.conf` due to the newline injection. This can allow adding arbitrary lifecycle hooks, ultimately resulting in arbitrary command execution on the host. ### Details When passing environment variables in the config block of a new container, values are not checked for the presence of newlines [1], which can result in newline injection insi

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 in your dependencies?

O3 detects GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

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