Severity by source
AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:L
Host has local ttRPC access with no guest-side auth; scope changes because host affects a separate confidential guest domain; no confidentiality impact confirmed.
Primary rating from Vendor (GitHub_M).
CVSS VectorVendor: GitHub_M
Lifecycle Timeline
2DescriptionCVE.org
Kata Containers is an open source implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. In versions prior to 4.0.0, the kata-agent is vulnerable to an authorization bypass in confidential-guest memory management. In Confidential Containers (CoCo) deployments, the kata-agent enforces an OPA/Rego-based AgentPolicy that must authorize every ttRPC API call, forming the security boundary that prevents an untrusted host from directing the confidential guest. Two ttRPC methods introduced with the mem-agent feature are missing this authorization check, so an untrusted host can invoke them unconditionally regardless of the guest's policy configuration. When mem-agent is enabled (off by default), this lets the host tamper with in-guest memory management by forcing swap, aggressive eviction, or compaction, resulting in attacker-controlled availability and performance degradation of the confidential workload entirely outside the agent-policy boundary. The impact does not include memory disclosure or code execution, and severity is bounded by the precondition that mem-agent must be explicitly enabled. This issue is fixed in version 4.0.0.
AnalysisAI
Authorization bypass in the kata-agent's ttRPC API allows an untrusted host to invoke two mem-agent methods unconditionally, circumventing the OPA/Rego-based AgentPolicy that forms the security boundary in Confidential Containers (CoCo) deployments. Affected are kata-containers versions prior to 4.0.0 when the mem-agent feature is explicitly enabled (disabled by default). The untrusted host can force in-guest memory operations - swap, aggressive eviction, or compaction - causing attacker-controlled availability and performance degradation of the confidential workload; the description explicitly rules out memory disclosure and code execution. No public exploit or CISA KEV listing has been identified at time of analysis, but the bypass is architecturally significant because it violates the CoCo threat model's fundamental assumption that the host is untrusted.
Technical ContextAI
Kata Containers (CPE: cpe:2.3:a:kata-containers:kata-containers:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*) implements lightweight VMs that behave like containers, with a kata-agent process running inside the guest VM. In Confidential Containers deployments, the security model explicitly treats the host as untrusted; the kata-agent enforces an OPA/Rego-based AgentPolicy that must authorize every inbound ttRPC API call before the guest acts on it. The mem-agent feature, introduced to support in-guest memory pressure management, added two new ttRPC methods but omitted the AgentPolicy authorization check - a CWE-862 (Missing Authorization) defect. Because ttRPC is the communication channel between the host and the kata-agent, and because the two affected methods bypass the policy gate entirely, the host-to-guest security boundary is violated for any deployment where mem-agent has been enabled. The root cause is not a logic error in policy evaluation but the complete absence of the authorization hook for these two API endpoints.
RemediationAI
The vendor-released patch is kata-containers version 4.0.0, which closes the missing authorization check on the two affected ttRPC mem-agent methods. Operators should upgrade to 4.0.0 as the primary remediation action, referencing the advisory at https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/security/advisories/GHSA-h8jv-63p2-496x for upgrade guidance. For deployments that cannot immediately upgrade, the most effective compensating control is disabling the mem-agent feature, which removes the vulnerable ttRPC surface entirely; since mem-agent is off by default, any deployment that never explicitly enabled it is not exposed. If mem-agent functionality is operationally required prior to patching, restricting host-level access to the ttRPC socket through hypervisor-level or network policy controls may reduce exposure, though this depends on the infrastructure stack and should be validated against the specific deployment topology. No additional workarounds are described in the available advisory data beyond disabling mem-agent.
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External POC / Exploit Code
Leaving vuln.today
EUVD-2026-54711