CVE-2026-6406

HighCVSS 8.8

Published: 22/05/2026(UTC)Updated: 23/07/2026(UTC)Translated: 25/07/2026(UTC)NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk

0.21%

11th percentile - higher than 11% of all known CVEs

Summary

The Docker CLI --use-api-socket flag bypasses Enhanced Container Isolation (ECI) restrictions in Docker Desktop. When ECI is enabled, Docker socket mounts from containers are denied unless explicitly allowed. The --use-api-socket flag adds the mount via HostConfig.Mounts instead of HostConfig.Binds, and ECI enforcement only inspects Binds, allowing the mount to pass unchecked. This grants a container full access to the Docker Engine socket and, if the host user is logged into container registries, their authentication credentials.

Risk Assessment

A local attacker with the ability to run Docker CLI commands can bypass ECI, access the Docker Engine, and potentially escalate privileges, as well as steal credentials for container registries.

Recommendation

Update Docker Desktop to a version that includes a fix extending ECI checks to the HostConfig.Mounts field.

Other vulnerabilities in Docker Desktop

CVE-2026-8936High
Docker Desktop 4.76.0 fixes a VM panic caused by unbounded recursion in the grpcfuse kernel module when deeply nested directories are created on a bind-mounted host folder and a dentry invalidation event is triggered.

Original NVD description (English source)

The Docker CLI --use-api-socket flag bypasses Enhanced Container Isolation (ECI) restrictions in Docker Desktop. When ECI is enabled, Docker socket mounts from containers are denied unless explicitly allowed via the admin-settings configuration. However, the --use-api-socket flag adds the Docker socket mount via the HostConfig.Mounts field rather than the HostConfig.Binds field. The ECI enforcement in the Docker Desktop API proxy only inspected Binds, allowing the mount to pass unchecked. This grants a container full access to the Docker Engine socket and, if the host user has logged in to container registries, their authentication credentials. A local attacker with the ability to run Docker CLI commands can exploit this to escape ECI restrictions, access the Docker Engine, and potentially escalate privileges.