CVE-2026-12080

HIGHPre-NVD 7.37.3—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

Score 7.3 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: HIGH) published 2026-07-20. a secondary CVSS source baseline 7.3; sources differ by 0.0.

Triggered by: GitHub Security Advisory CVSS
Sources: epss, ghsa, secondary
Trending — 4 sources updated this week
7.3EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0%CVSS: 7.3Exploit: None knownExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

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.

CVSS v3
7.3
EG Score
7.3(medium)
EG Risk
33(Track)
EG Risk 33/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity73% × 45%
Exploitation0% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS PROB
0%
EPSS %ILE
8%
KEV
Not listed

Published

July 20, 2026

Last Modified

August 31, 2026

Advisory Details (3)

Auto-updated Jul 20, 2026
🔬 Proof of concept available. Patch available. Sources: redhat.
generic🟡 PoC Available

Local privilege escalation in qemu-guest-agent (guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys, symlink-following chown) (#3929) · Issues · QEMU / QEMU · GitLab

https://gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/work_items/3929
redhat

2499603 – (CVE-2026-12080) CVE-2026-12080 qemu-kvm: qemu-guest-agent: Local privilege escalation via symlink attack in guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2499603
redhat Patch Available

cve-details

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-12080

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-12080(2)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Affected Packages

(4 across 4 ecosystems)
Debian:11(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
qemu1:10.0.0+ds-1 ... 1:9.2.2+ds-1~bpo12+1 (225 versions)——
Debian:12(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
qemu1:10.0.0+ds-1 ... 1:9.2.2+ds-1~bpo12+1 (199 versions)——
Debian:13(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
qemu1:10.0.10+ds-0+deb13u1 ... 1:11.1.1+ds-1 (65 versions)——
Debian:14(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
qemu1:10.0.2+ds-2 ... 1:11.1.1+ds-1 (56 versions)——

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 22× in last 7d / 101× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

Showing the most recent 100 of 185 total refreshes for this CVE.

  1. 2026-09-11 20:58 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-09-11 20:58 UTCVendor advisory
  3. 2026-09-11 20:58 UTCGHSA enrichment
  4. 2026-09-11 14:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-09-11 09:36 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-09-11 09:29 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-09-11 09:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-09-10 09:34 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-09-09 11:59 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-09-09 11:59 UTCVendor advisory
  11. 2026-09-09 11:59 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-09-08 22:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-09-07 22:57 UTCEG score recompute
  14. 2026-09-07 22:57 UTCVendor advisory
  15. 2026-09-07 22:57 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-09-07 16:01 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-09-06 13:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-09-06 11:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  19. 2026-09-05 21:04 UTCEG score recompute
  20. 2026-09-05 21:04 UTCGHSA enrichment
  21. 2026-09-05 09:36 UTCEG score recompute
  22. 2026-09-05 09:36 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-09-04 05:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-09-02 14:11 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-09-01 13:53 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 75 more
  1. 2026-09-01 04:39 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-08-31 17:24 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-08-31 17:24 UTCGHSA enrichment
  4. 2026-08-31 17:06 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-08-31 17:06 UTCGHSA enrichment
  6. 2026-08-31 02:59 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-08-31 02:59 UTCGHSA enrichment
  8. 2026-08-30 19:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-08-30 15:31 UTCGHSA enrichment
  10. 2026-08-30 02:39 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-08-30 02:39 UTCGHSA enrichment
  12. 2026-08-30 01:21 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-08-28 21:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-08-27 23:10 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-08-27 23:10 UTCGHSA enrichment
  16. 2026-08-27 14:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-08-27 11:43 UTCGHSA enrichment
  18. 2026-08-26 23:09 UTCEG score recompute
  19. 2026-08-26 23:09 UTCGHSA enrichment
  20. 2026-08-26 11:40 UTCGHSA enrichment
  21. 2026-08-25 23:59 UTCEG score recompute
  22. 2026-08-25 23:59 UTCGHSA enrichment
  23. 2026-08-25 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-08-25 12:30 UTCGHSA enrichment
  25. 2026-08-25 00:56 UTCEG score recompute
  26. 2026-08-25 00:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
  27. 2026-08-24 13:29 UTCEG score recompute
  28. 2026-08-24 13:29 UTCGHSA enrichment
  29. 2026-08-24 12:20 UTCEG score recompute
  30. 2026-08-24 12:20 UTCGHSA enrichment
  31. 2026-08-24 11:23 UTCEG score recompute
  32. 2026-08-24 11:23 UTCGHSA enrichment
  33. 2026-08-24 10:56 UTCEG score recompute
  34. 2026-08-24 10:56 UTCGHSA enrichment
  35. 2026-08-24 06:19 UTCGHSA enrichment
  36. 2026-08-23 18:33 UTCGHSA enrichment
  37. 2026-08-23 07:06 UTCEG score recompute
  38. 2026-08-23 07:06 UTCGHSA enrichment
  39. 2026-08-23 00:19 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-08-22 19:38 UTCGHSA enrichment
  41. 2026-08-22 08:10 UTCEG score recompute
  42. 2026-08-22 08:10 UTCGHSA enrichment
  43. 2026-08-21 23:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-08-21 20:42 UTCGHSA enrichment
  45. 2026-08-21 09:14 UTCEG score recompute
  46. 2026-08-21 09:14 UTCGHSA enrichment
  47. 2026-08-20 22:55 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-08-20 21:47 UTCGHSA enrichment
  49. 2026-08-20 10:19 UTCGHSA enrichment
  50. 2026-08-19 22:52 UTCEG score recompute
  51. 2026-08-19 22:52 UTCGHSA enrichment
  52. 2026-08-19 17:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  53. 2026-08-19 07:04 UTCGHSA enrichment
  54. 2026-08-18 19:36 UTCEG score recompute
  55. 2026-08-18 19:36 UTCGHSA enrichment
  56. 2026-08-18 13:48 UTCEPSS rescore
  57. 2026-08-18 01:49 UTCEG score recompute
  58. 2026-08-18 01:49 UTCGHSA enrichment
  59. 2026-08-17 13:44 UTCGHSA enrichment
  60. 2026-08-17 02:17 UTCEG score recompute
  61. 2026-08-17 02:17 UTCGHSA enrichment
  62. 2026-08-16 14:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  63. 2026-08-16 14:49 UTCGHSA enrichment
  64. 2026-08-16 03:21 UTCEG score recompute
  65. 2026-08-16 03:21 UTCGHSA enrichment
  66. 2026-08-16 02:14 UTCEPSS rescore
  67. 2026-08-15 15:54 UTCGHSA enrichment
  68. 2026-08-15 04:26 UTCEG score recompute
  69. 2026-08-15 04:26 UTCGHSA enrichment
  70. 2026-08-15 01:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  71. 2026-08-14 16:58 UTCGHSA enrichment
  72. 2026-08-14 05:31 UTCEG score recompute
  73. 2026-08-14 05:31 UTCGHSA enrichment
  74. 2026-08-13 22:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  75. 2026-08-13 18:03 UTCGHSA enrichment

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2026-12080?
CVE-2026-12080 is a high vulnerability published on July 20, 2026. 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…
When was CVE-2026-12080 disclosed?
CVE-2026-12080 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on July 20, 2026, with the most recent update on August 31, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2026-12080 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-12080 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, which ranks it in the top 92.3% of all scored CVEs.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-12080?
CVE-2026-12080 has a CVSS v3 base score of 7.3 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-12080?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2026-12080, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

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