CVE Catalog

CVE-2026-77159

MediumCVSS 5.5
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.16%

6th percentile - higher than 6% of all known CVEs

Summary

A symlink-following flaw was found in libvirt's qemuTPMEmulatorPrepareHost() function. The function uses a path-based chown() on the swtpm logfile without checking for symbolic links. A local attacker with access to the swtpm account can replace the logfile with a symlink, causing libvirtd (running as root) to transfer ownership of an arbitrary file to the swtpm user.

Risk Assessment

An attacker could change the ownership of any file on the system, potentially leading to privilege escalation and system compromise. This may compromise data integrity and confidentiality.

Recommendation

Update libvirt to a version containing the fix. Until then, restrict access to the swtpm account and monitor for unusual file ownership changes.

Other vulnerabilities in libvirt

See all
Original NVD description (English source)

A symlink-following flaw was found in libvirt's qemuTPMEmulatorPrepareHost() function. The function uses a path-based chown() on the swtpm logfile without checking for symbolic links. A local attacker with access to the swtpm account can replace the logfile with a symlink, causing libvirtd (running as root) to transfer ownership of an arbitrary file to the swtpm user.

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