CVE-2026-48785

MediumCVSS 4.8

Published: 15/09/2026(UTC)Updated: 25/09/2026(UTC)Translated: 16/09/2026(UTC)NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk

0.15%

4th percentile - higher than 4% of all known CVEs

Summary

Apptainer before version 1.5.1 has a vulnerability in Image.AuthorizedPath that applies plain string-prefix matching to the limit container paths directive in apptainer.conf, so an allowed path such as /data/safe also authorizes a sibling path such as /data/safe-but-unsafe. A local user can consequently run a container from a directory outside the administrator's intended allowlist when Apptainer operates in setuid mode.

Risk Assessment

A local user can run containers from unauthorized paths, potentially leading to security policy violations and potential access to unauthorized data.

Recommendation

It is recommended to upgrade Apptainer to version 1.5.1 or later, which includes the fix.

Other vulnerabilities in Apptainer

CVE-2023-38496Medium
Apptainer is an open source container platform. Version 1.2.0-rc.2 introduced an ineffective privilege drop when requesting container network setup, allowing subsequent functions to be called with root privileges.

Original NVD description (English source)

Apptainer is an open source container platform. Prior to version 1.5.1, Image.AuthorizedPath applies plain string-prefix matching to the limit container paths directive in apptainer.conf, so an allowed path such as /data/safe also authorizes a sibling path such as /data/safe-but-unsafe. A local user can consequently run a container from a directory outside the administrator's intended allowlist when Apptainer operates in setuid mode. Installations that do not use setuid mode or do not configure limit container paths are not affected, and unrestricted user namespaces already allow users to run containers of their choice. This issue is fixed in version 1.5.1.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS