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Advisory severityHigh7.3Red Hat Linux

High [CVE-2026-12080] Local privilege escalation via symlink attack in guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys

This high-severity Red Hat Linux advisory covers CVE-2026-12080 affecting Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.

Aggregated and source-linked by VulniPulse. Data sources, validation and limitations.

CVE-2026-12080 Source published Source updated

VulniPulse record published Record updated

CVE-2026-12080
Affected products & platforms
Red Hat LinuxRed Hat Enterprise Linux
Open source advisory

Summary

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. Red Hat severity: Important — CVSS 7.3 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H).

Weakness: CWE-61. Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8; Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA 26; Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.

Red Hat lists Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6; Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 as not affected. Will not fix / out of support: Red Hat Enterprise Linux for NVIDIA 26.

Red Hat fixing advisory: RHSA-2026:88421.

Affected products named by the advisory: Red Hat package: qemu-kvm.

Is CVE-2026-12080 exploited?

No exploitation is reported in the sources VulniPulse tracks: CVE-2026-12080 is not in the CISA KEV catalog (checked ) and this advisory does not report exploitation. That is not proof the vulnerability cannot be exploited.

How do I fix CVE-2026-12080?

Upgrade to a fixed release named by Red Hat:

  • qemu-kvm-17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9
  • RHSA-2026:88421

Confirm against the vendor advisory before you patch.

Affected versions

No affected-version range was extracted from the source record. The vendor advisory is authoritative. Check it before change work.

Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 11 days ago·verify at source

Fixed versions
  • qemu-kvm-17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9
  • RHSA-2026:88421

Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 11 days ago·verify at source

Mitigation checklist

Recommended fix / mitigation
  • 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.

Official advisory · high-confidence parse· fetched 11 days ago·verify at source

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