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containerd CVE-2026-53488

| EUVDEUVD-2026-40860 CRITICAL
Improper Input Validation (CWE-20)
2026-06-19 GHSA-xhf5-7wjv-pqxp
Information Disclosure Red Hat Containerd Linuxfoundation
9.4
CVSS 4.0 · Vendor
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Severity by source

Vendor (CNA) PRIMARY
9.4 CRITICAL
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:N/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
vuln.today AI
7.8 HIGH

AV:L because a malicious image must run on the host; AC:H and PR:L because a label-consuming plugin must be configured and the attacker needs workload-deployment ability; S:C for container-to-host escape with full impact.

3.1 AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:L/AC:H/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
SUSE
8.8 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Red Hat
8.8 HIGH
qualitative

Primary rating from Vendor (CNA).

CVSS VectorVendor

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
None
User Interaction
None
Scope
X

Lifecycle Timeline

6
Source Code Evidence Fetched
Jul 01, 2026 - 02:28 vuln.today
Analysis Updated
Jul 01, 2026 - 02:28 vuln.today
v3 (cvss_changed)
Analysis Updated
Jul 01, 2026 - 02:28 vuln.today
v2 (cvss_changed)
Re-analysis Queued
Jul 01, 2026 - 02:22 vuln.today
cvss_changed
CVSS changed
Jul 01, 2026 - 02:22 NVD
9.4 (CRITICAL)
Analysis Generated
Jun 19, 2026 - 02:19 vuln.today

Description PRE-NVD

Disclosed via oss-security. NVD scoring and full description are pending.

Articles & Coverage 4

News 4 New Kubernetes Vulnerabilities - 3 Critical, 1 High Severity Jun 20, 2026 News 6 New Docker Vulnerabilities - 3 Critical, 3 High Severity Jun 20, 2026 News 6 New Docker Vulnerabilities - 3 Critical, 3 High Severity Jun 19, 2026 News Critical Label Injection RCE in Kubernetes containerd CRI Plugin - CVE-2026-53488 Jun 19, 2026

AnalysisAI

Host command execution in containerd's CRI plugin arises because labels from an image config (Dockerfile LABEL instruction) are propagated to the created container without validation; when a downstream plugin consumes those labels for operations (notably the restart-monitor's binary:// logger path), an attacker-controlled label value becomes an arbitrary command executed with host-root privileges. Affected releases are all containerd versions prior to 1.7.33, 2.0.10, 2.1.9, 2.2.5, and 2.3.2, meaning any environment that pulls and runs an untrusted image on a node using a label-consuming plugin is exposed to full container-to-host escape. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, and the issue is not listed in CISA KEV, so this is a high-severity, responsibly-disclosed flaw rather than one with confirmed active exploitation.

Technical ContextAI

containerd is the CNCF-graduated container runtime that underpins Kubernetes (via the CRI plugin) and Docker. The root cause is CWE-20 (Improper Input Validation): the CRI plugin copies OCI image-config LABEL key/values verbatim onto the container object, trusting attacker-influenced image metadata. Certain containerd subsystems interpret label values as operational parameters - the GHSA specifically calls out the restart-monitor consuming a label that maps to a binary:// logger URI, where the label value is treated as a command/binary path and executed on the host. Because the untrusted data crosses from the container's image metadata into a host-side execution primitive, a crafted image LABEL yields command execution in the host root context. Affected Go modules are github.com/containerd/containerd (1.7.x branch) and github.com/containerd/containerd/v2 (2.0-2.2 branches); no CPE strings were supplied, so affected scope is derived from the package advisory ranges.

RemediationAI

Vendor-released patches exist - upgrade containerd to the fixed release for your branch: 1.7.33, 2.0.10, 2.1.9, 2.2.5, or 2.3.2 (per GHSA-xhf5-7wjv-pqxp, https://github.com/containerd/containerd/security/advisories/GHSA-xhf5-7wjv-pqxp). On Ubuntu, apply the packaged updates from USN-8471-1/USN-8472-1/USN-8473-1 (https://ubuntu.com/security/notices/USN-8472-1). Where immediate patching is not possible, the vendor-recommended workaround is to ensure only trusted images are used - enforce this concretely by restricting pulls to a curated internal registry, requiring signed images (e.g., Sigstore/cosign admission policy), and blocking arbitrary public-registry pulls; the trade-off is added registry/admission-control overhead and friction for developers who previously pulled arbitrary images. As a defense-in-depth measure until patched, avoid configuring label-consuming plugins such as the restart-monitor with a binary:// logger on untrusted-workload nodes, accepting the loss of that logging/monitoring capability.

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Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Important
Product Status
SUSE Package Hub 15 SP7 Fixed
openSUSE Tumbleweed Fixed
SLES15-SP5-CHOST-BYOS-SAP-CCloud Affected
SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS Affected
SLES15-SP6-CHOST-BYOS-Aliyun Affected

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CVE-2026-53488 vulnerability details – vuln.today
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