CVE-2026-41579
LowCVSS 3.3Exploitation Probability (EPSS)
Low risk13th percentile - higher than 13% of all known CVEs
Summary
In runc prior to versions 1.3.6, 1.4.3, and 1.5.0, setupPtmx and setupDevSymlinks use filepath.Join with os.Remove and os.Symlink, allowing an image with /dev as a symlink to delete the ptmx file on the host or create symlinks in an arbitrary host directory. This is not exploitable under Docker, but other container tooling built on runc remains exposed.
Risk Assessment
The organization may lose control over host filesystem integrity if using non-Docker container tooling based on runc, as a malicious image can delete the ptmx file or create symlinks in any host directory.
Recommendation
Update runc to version 1.3.6, 1.4.3, or 1.5.0. If using non-Docker container tooling, verify compatibility with the patched runc version.
Other vulnerabilities in runc
See all- CVE-2025-52565High
runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification. Versions 1.0.0-rc3 through 1.2.7, 1.3.0-rc.1 through 1.3.2, and 1.4.0-rc.1 through 1.4.0-rc.2, due to insufficient checks when bind-mounting `/dev/pts/$n` to `/dev/console` inside the container, an attacker can...
- CVE-2025-31133High
runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification. In versions 1.2.7 and below, 1.3.0-rc.1 through 1.3.1, 1.4.0-rc.1 and 1.4.0-rc.2, runc would not perform sufficient verification that the source of the bind-mount (i.e., the container's /dev/null) was actually...
- CVE-2024-45310Medium
runc 1.1.13 and earlier, as well as 1.2.0-rc2 and earlier, can be tricked into creating empty files or directories in arbitrary locations in the host filesystem by sharing a volume between two containers and exploiting certain operations.
- CVE-2024-21626High
A vulnerability in runc 1.1.11 and earlier is caused by an internal file descriptor leak, allowing an attacker to set the working directory of a container process to the host filesystem namespace. This enables container escape and access to the host filesystem via runc exec or runc run. Additional attack variants allow overwriting host binaries, leading to complete container escape.
Original NVD description (English source)
runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification. In versions prior to 1.3.6, 1.4.0-rc.1, 1.4.0-rc.12, 1.5.0-rc.1, and 1.5.0-rc.1, when setting up the container rootfs, setupPtmx and setupDevSymlinks call os.Remove and os.Symlink with a filepath.Join string which allow an image with /dev as a symlink to trick runc into deleting files called ptmx on the host or creating a hardcoded set of symlinks with specific names and targets in an arbitrary pre-existing host directory. This issue is not exploitable under Docker, because Docker creates a top-level read-only layer that masks any malicious /dev symlink present in the container image — unlike some other Linux container tooling, whose higher-level runtimes built on runc remain exposed to exploitation via a malicious image. This issue has been fixed in versions 1.3.6, 1.4.3 and 1.5.0.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS