Critical [CVE-2026-44210] Privilege escalation and information disclosure via command-line argument injection

Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers.

Versions prior to 3.31.0 ship with a default configuration that allows pod creators to inject arbitrary command-line arguments into the virtiofsd process through the `io.katacontainers.config.hypervisor.virtio_fs_extra_args` pod annotation.

By injecting `-o source=/` along with `--no-announce-submounts` and `--sandbox=none`, an attacker can override the virtiofsd shared directory to serve the entire host root filesystem into the guest VM.

Combined with the `kernel_params` annotation (also enabled by default) to activate the agent debug console, the attacker can mount the host filesystem from inside the VM and read or write any file on the host, including /etc/shadow. Version 3.31.0 patches the issue.

A user with privileges to create pods can inject malicious command-line arguments into the virtiofsd process, which manages shared file systems.

When combined with another default configuration, this vulnerability allows an attacker to read and write any file on the host system, leading to significant information disclosure and potential privilege escalation. Red Hat severity: Important — CVSS 9.9 (CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).

Weakness: CWE-88. Affected Red Hat products: Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.