Medium [CVE-2026-53489] Arbitrary host file read via symlink following in CRI checkpoint restore

containerd is an open-source container runtime. Versions prior to 2.3.2, 2.2.5 and 2.1.9 contain a bug where the CRI plugin restores container.log from a checkpoint image without validating a symlinked path.

This could result in reading an arbitrary file on the host via kubectl logs. This issue has been fixed in versions 2.3.2, 2.2.5 and 2.1.9.

This vulnerability, categorized as a Path Traversal (CWE-61), allows an attacker to read arbitrary files on the host system by manipulating symlinked paths during the checkpoint restore process. This can lead to unauthorized information disclosure from the host.

This vulnerability is not exploitable in several Red Hat products listed in the affect table. Although some shipped images include the containerd Go module (primarily v1.x, and in a few cases containerd v2.x API client libraries) as a build-time dependency for OCI image handling, they do not execute the containerd daemon or its CRI plugin.

As a result, the vulnerable containerd CRI checkpoint-restore code path is not exercised. Red Hat severity: Important — CVSS 6.5 (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N).

Weakness: CWE-59.

Affected products named by the advisory: Red Hat Hardened Images; Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4.19; Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4.20; Exploit Intelligence; and 5 more.