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libvirt EUVDEUVD-2026-55823

| CVE-2026-63622 HIGH
Improper Link Resolution Before File Access (CWE-59)
2026-08-10 redhat GHSA-r329-fjhj-3cw3
Privilege Escalation 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 Enterprise Linux For Nvidia 26 Red Hat
7.8
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: redhat
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Severity by source

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

Local attack requires swtpm-user execution (PR:L, AV:L); symlink planting needs no complexity or timing (AC:L); arbitrary file chown yields full C/I/A impact.

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

Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).

CVSS VectorVendor: redhat

Attack Vector
Local
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

Lifecycle Timeline

2
Analysis Generated
Aug 10, 2026 - 21:24 vuln.today
CVE Published
Aug 10, 2026 - 20:45 nvd
HIGH 7.8

DescriptionCVE.org

A flaw was found in libvirt. A local attacker, specifically a process running as the confined swtpm user, could exploit a symlink-following vulnerability in the virFileChownFiles() function. By planting a symbolic link within the swtpm state directory, the attacker could trick the root-level libvirt daemon into changing the ownership of an arbitrary file to the swtpm user. This allows for privilege escalation from the swtpm sandbox to root-level file ownership control.

AnalysisAI

Privilege escalation in libvirt's virFileChownFiles() function allows a process confined to the swtpm system user to coerce the root-level libvirtd daemon into reassigning ownership of any arbitrary file on the host to the swtpm user. The attack exploits a symlink-following flaw (CWE-59) in directory traversal logic that runs with root privileges, affecting libvirt as packaged across Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 through 10 and RHEL for Nvidia 26. No public exploit has been identified at time of analysis, but the attack complexity is low once swtpm-user execution is obtained.

Technical ContextAI

libvirt is the standard open-source virtualization management API used to control QEMU/KVM, Xen, and related hypervisors on Linux. The swtpm (Software TPM) component is a user-space emulator of a Trusted Platform Module, executed as a dedicated confined system user (swtpm) when virtual machines are configured with vTPM support. The vulnerable function, virFileChownFiles(), is invoked by libvirtd running as root to reassign ownership of files within the swtpm state directory. CWE-59 (Improper Link Resolution Before File Access - Link Following) is the root cause: the function does not validate that each filesystem entry in the directory is a regular file before calling chown, allowing a symbolic link planted by the attacker to redirect the privileged ownership change to an arbitrary path on the host filesystem. The CPE data confirms affected packages span cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_6 through cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_10 and cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_enterprise_linux_for_nvidia_26, meaning the flaw is present in libvirt as distributed across all actively supported RHEL generations.

RemediationAI

Apply the libvirt package update issued by Red Hat for the affected RHEL version, as documented at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-63622. The exact fixed package version is not confirmed in the available data and must be retrieved from the Red Hat advisory or errata for the specific RHEL release in use. As a compensating control where immediate patching is not feasible, disable vTPM support in all libvirt domain XML configurations - this prevents swtpm from being launched and eliminates the state directory that enables the attack, at the cost of removing hardware-rooted trust functionality from VMs that depend on it. On systems with SELinux in enforcing mode and an up-to-date targeted policy, symlink-following by libvirtd into swtpm directories may already be restricted by MAC policy; administrators should verify the active SELinux policy covers this path rather than assuming protection. Restricting write access to the swtpm state directory via filesystem ACLs is not a reliable mitigation since the swtpm user requires write access to that directory for normal operation.

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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-2026-55823 vulnerability details – vuln.today
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