Host code execution via unvalidated config path annotation in Kata Containers (CVE-2026-50540)

The kata-runtime's `load_config` function accepts an arbitrary `io.katacontainers.config_path` pod annotation and loads the referenced host TOML file without validation or restriction. A pod user who can place a file at a host-visible path may supply a configuration pointing to an attacker-controlled hypervisor or virtio-fs daemon binary, resulting in arbitrary code execution as root on the host when the sandbox starts. This vulnerability affects all deployments using the Rust runtime, with multi-tenant Kubernetes clusters at highest risk. Affected versions: - <=3.32.0 We recommend updating to: 4.0.0. CVSS 9.6 · our assessment: act_now Reference: https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/security/advisories/GHSA-mp2j-xm59-qfgw Details: https://vuln.today/cve/CVE-2026-50540