A flaw was found in the QEMU Guest Agent (qga). A local unprivileged user can exploit a vulnerability in the guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys command handler by manipulating symbolic links. This can occur either through a deterministic directory-symlink bypass or a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) file-symlink race. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to gain ownership of arbitrary root-owned files or directories, leading to root access. This vulnerability requires an external management layer (e.g., libvirt) to trigger the affected code path.

Project Subscriptions

Vendors Products
Enterprise Linux Subscribe
Enterprise Linux Nvidia Subscribe
Openshift Subscribe
Advisories

No advisories yet.

Fixes

Solution

No solution given by the vendor.


Workaround

If the `guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys` command is not required, it can be disabled by adding it to the qemu-guest-agent block list (qemu-ga --block-rpcs). This prevents the vulnerable code path from being reached while preserving all other guest-agent functionality.

History

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 19:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References

Mon, 20 Jul 2026 13:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description No description is available for this CVE. A flaw was found in the QEMU Guest Agent (qga). A local unprivileged user can exploit a vulnerability in the guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys command handler by manipulating symbolic links. This can occur either through a deterministic directory-symlink bypass or a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) file-symlink race. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to gain ownership of arbitrary root-owned files or directories, leading to root access. This vulnerability requires an external management layer (e.g., libvirt) to trigger the affected code path.
Title qemu-kvm: qemu-guest-agent: Local privilege escalation via symlink attack in guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys Qemu-kvm: qemu-guest-agent: local privilege escalation via symlink attack in guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys
First Time appeared Redhat
Redhat enterprise Linux
Redhat enterprise Linux Nvidia
Redhat openshift
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:enterprise_linux_nvidia:
cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:4
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:10
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:6
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:7
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:8
cpe:/o:redhat:enterprise_linux:9
Vendors & Products Redhat
Redhat enterprise Linux
Redhat enterprise Linux Nvidia
Redhat openshift
References

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 15:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Qemu
Qemu qemu
Vendors & Products Qemu
Qemu qemu

Mon, 13 Jul 2026 12:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description No description is available for this CVE.
Title qemu-kvm: qemu-guest-agent: Local privilege escalation via symlink attack in guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys
Weaknesses CWE-61
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

cvssV3_1

{'score': 7.3, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

threat_severity

Important


Projects

Sign in to view the affected projects.

cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: redhat

Published:

Updated: 2026-07-20T19:08:22.324Z

Reserved: 2026-06-12T12:44:56.002Z

Link: CVE-2026-12080

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-07-20T18:03:38.950Z

cve-icon NVD

No data.

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Important

Publid Date: 2026-07-09T10:57:00Z

Links: CVE-2026-12080 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-07-21T21:00:13Z

Weaknesses