CVE-2026-41579
Published: June 16, 2026Last modified: June 22, 2026
Description
runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification. In versions prior to 1.3.6, 1.4.0-rc.1, 1.4.0-rc.12, 1.5.0-rc.1, and 1.5.0-rc.1, when setting up the container rootfs, setupPtmx and setupDevSymlinks call os.Remove and os.Symlink with a filepath.Join string which allow an image with /dev as a symlink to trick runc into deleting files called ptmx on the host or creating a hardcoded set of symlinks with specific names and targets in an arbitrary pre-existing host directory. This issue is not exploitable under Docker, because Docker creates a top-level read-only layer that masks any malicious /dev symlink present in the container image — unlike some other Linux container tooling, whose higher-level runtimes built on runc remain exposed to exploitation via a malicious image. This issue has been fixed in versions 1.3.6, 1.4.3 and 1.5.0.
Severity score breakdown
| Parameter | Value |
|---|---|
| Base score | 3.3 |
| Attack Vector | LOCAL |
| Attack complexity | LOW |
| Privileges required | NONE |
| User interaction | REQUIRED |
| Scope | UNCHANGED |
| Confidentiality | NONE |
| Integrity impact | LOW |
| Availability impact | NONE |
| Vector | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N |
Status
| Product | Release | Package | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpaquita Linux | 23 LTS | runc | Fixed (1.3.6-r0) |
| 25 LTS | runc | Fixed (1.3.6-r0) | |
| Stream | runc | Fixed (1.4.3-r0) |