Input validation error in Kata Containers - CVE-2026-50540
Published: July 26, 2026
Vulnerability identifier: #VU139370
CSH Severity: Medium
CVSS v4: 8.6 [CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N]
CVE-ID: CVE-2026-50540
CWE-ID: CWE-20
Exploitation vector: Remote access
Exploit availability:
No public exploit available
Vulnerability details
The vulnerability allows a remote user to execute arbitrary code on the host.
The vulnerability exists due to improper input validation in the kata-runtime load_config function when processing the io.katacontainers.config_path pod annotation. A remote user can supply a crafted configuration file path to execute arbitrary code on the host.
Exploitation requires the ability to set pod annotations and access to a host filesystem path containing an attacker-controlled TOML configuration file.
Affected software
Kata Containers
How to mitigate CVE-2026-50540
Install security update from vendor's website.
Kata Containers - update to 4.0.0