CVE-2026-23954 | Incus container image templating arbitrary host file read and write

Exp

Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. Versions 6.21.0 and below allow a user with the ability to launch a container with a custom image (e.g a member of the ‘incus’ group) to use directory traversal or symbolic links in the templating functionality to achieve host arbitrary file read, and host arbitrary file write. This ultimately results in arbitrary command execution on the host. When using an image with a metadata.yaml containing templates, both the source and target paths are not checked for symbolic links or directory traversal. This can also be exploited in IncusOS. A fix is planned for versions 6.0.6 and 6.21.0, but they have not been released at the time of publication.

Published: 2026-01-22 Last update: 2026-06-17 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-23954 is rated High Exploit Risk (67.7/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.73%). Core evidence: 2 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-23954

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-23954

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-06-15 0.05% 0.73% +0.68%
2 2026-03-31 0.04% 0.05% +0.01%
3 2026-02-18 0.04%

Full EPSS history (4 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-23954

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
8.7 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:A)
Attacker has to be nearby on the network—same office, same link, that vibe—not the whole wide internet.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
2.3 5.8 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-23954

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-23954

GHSA-7f67-crqm-jgh7 · Severity: high · Ecosystem: go — Incus container image templating arbitrary host file read and write

OS Trackers for CVE-2026-23954

vendor priority summary link
alpine CVE-2026-23954: 2 source package rows (incus, incus-feature); 29 state rows across 2 repos (3.23-community, edge-community); fixed 9, open 20. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2026-23954
debian not yet assigned CVE-2026-23954 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 2 source packages (incus, lxd), 5 status rows across 4 suites (bookworm, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2026-23954
ubuntu medium CVE-2026-23954 medium priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (incus, lxd), 11 status rows across 7 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, questing, upstream, xenial): needs-triage 6, DNE 4, released 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2026-23954

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-23954

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linuxcontainers incus <= 6.0.5 cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linuxcontainers incus >= 6.1.0, < 6.21.0 cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-23954

cvelogic Threat Intelligence