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QEMU Guest Agent EUVDEUVD-2026-45941

| CVE-2026-12080 HIGH
UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following (CWE-61)
2026-07-20 redhat GHSA-9xqq-92hv-jj34
RCE Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 Red Hat Openshift Container Platform 4 Red Hat Enterprise Linux For Nvidia 26 Red Hat
7.3
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: redhat
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Severity by source

Vendor (redhat) PRIMARY
7.3 HIGH
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI
7.5 HIGH

Local low-priv guest user (AV:L/PR:L); the file variant is a TOCTOU race (AC:H); guest-to-root crossing a trust boundary via the root agent warrants S:C, with full C/I/A on root compromise.

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

Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).

CVSS VectorVendor: redhat

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Analysis Generated
Jul 20, 2026 - 13:22 vuln.today
CVE Published
Jul 20, 2026 - 12:40 nvd
HIGH 7.3

DescriptionCVE.org

A flaw was found in the QEMU Guest Agent (qga). A local unprivileged user can exploit a vulnerability in the guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys command handler by manipulating symbolic links. This can occur either through a deterministic directory-symlink bypass or a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) file-symlink race. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to gain ownership of arbitrary root-owned files or directories, leading to root access. This vulnerability requires an external management layer (e.g., libvirt) to trigger the affected code path.

AnalysisAI

Local privilege escalation to root in the QEMU Guest Agent (qga) affects Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 through 10, RHEL for NVIDIA 26, and OpenShift Container Platform 4, where a local unprivileged guest user abuses the guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys command handler through symlink manipulation to seize ownership of arbitrary root-owned files. Two attack variants exist - a deterministic directory-symlink bypass and a TOCTOU file-symlink race - both requiring an external management layer such as libvirt to invoke the code path. No public exploit is identified at time of analysis and it is not listed in CISA KEV, but the CVSS 7.3 rating and clean path to full root access make it a meaningful local escalation risk in multi-tenant virtualization estates.

Technical ContextAI

QEMU Guest Agent is a helper daemon (qemu-ga) that runs inside a virtual machine and executes host-issued management commands over a virtio-serial or isa-serial channel, typically brokered by libvirt or a higher orchestration layer. The vulnerable guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys handler writes SSH authorized_keys material into a target user's ~/.ssh directory; because it resolves and operates on directory and file paths without safely constraining symbolic links, an attacker who controls those paths can redirect the privileged write. This is a classic CWE-61 (UNIX symbolic link following) weakness: the agent runs as root inside the guest, so following an attacker-planted symlink causes it to chown/create/write against a target the attacker could not otherwise touch. The directory variant is deterministic (a pre-planted directory symlink is simply followed), while the file variant is a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use race where the attacker swaps a legitimate file for a symlink between the agent's validation and its use.

RemediationAI

Apply the qemu-guest-agent update for your Red Hat release once published; exact fixed versions are not enumerated in the available data, so track and cite the per-release errata from the Red Hat advisory at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-12080 and Bugzilla 2499603 (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2499603) rather than an assumed version number. Because the current patch status here is best described as patch available per vendor advisory without an independently confirmed version, use compensating controls in the interim: disable or block the guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys command in the guest agent configuration (for example via the qemu-ga --block-rpcs / allowed-RPCs allowlist in /etc/sysconfig/qemu-ga or the equivalent QGA config, restricting the exposed RPC set) so the vulnerable handler cannot be invoked - the trade-off is loss of host-driven SSH key injection for those VMs. Where the SSH-key management workflow is not needed, stop or mask the qemu-guest-agent service entirely, accepting reduced host-to-guest management (freeze/thaw for snapshots, guest info reporting) as the side effect. Restrict which management-layer operators can issue guest-agent commands, and avoid running qemu-ga where untrusted local users share the guest.

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Vendor StatusVendor

SUSE

Severity: Important
Product Status
SUSE Linux Enterprise Desktop 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise High Performance Computing 15 SP7 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.3 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.4 Affected
SUSE Linux Enterprise Micro 5.5 Affected

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EUVD-2026-45941 vulnerability details – vuln.today
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