Arbitrary file read+write on host via templates/ symlink in malicious image (Canonical LXD)

CVE-2026-16033
HIGH 8.5

At a glance

Source
NVD
EPSS
EPSS 0.47 % · percentile 40 ()
State
PUBLISHED
Published
Updated
Assigner
canonical
NVD status
Analyzed

Description

A path traversal vulnerability in LXD allows an attacker to achieve arbitrary host file read or unconstrained file creation. When processing image metadata templates, LXD fails to properly sanitize or restrict template file paths from escaping the instance templates directory (specifically affecting virtual machine / QEMU driver execution paths). An attacker can exploit this flaw by providing a crafted image archive with malicious template directives containing path traversal sequences, causing LXD to access or write files outside the intended template directory on the host system.

Weaknesses (CWE)

  • CWE-22 — Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory

References

Scores

VersionScoreVectorScored by
CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.5CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:Ncanonical
CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.5CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:NNVD · security@ubuntu.com (Secondary)

European references

Affected configurations (NVD CPE)

Affected products

ProductVersions
Canonical · LXDaffected 4.0.0 < 4.0.12 ; affected 5.0.0 < 5.0.8

Sources

SourceLicence
CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5)CVE Program Terms of Use
EPSS (FIRST.org)FIRST — attribution requested
ENISA EUVDENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged
NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feedsPublic domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD