CVE-2026-50540

CRITICALPre-NVD 9.69.6—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

This critical-severity CVE scores 9.6 under a secondary CVSS source (NVD's own analysis pending). EPSS exploit probability: 0.6% (47th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs). GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).

Triggered by: NVD CVSS baseline
Sources: epss, secondary
Trending — 3 sources updated this week
9.6EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.6%CVSS: 9.6Exploit: None knownExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. Prior to version 4.0.0, kata-runtime is vulnerable to host code execution via an unvalidated configuration path annotation. The runtime accepts an arbitrary io.katacontainers.config_path pod annotation and loads the referenced host TOML file without restriction. As a result, a pod user who can place a file at a host-visible path can supply a configuration that selects an attacker-controlled hypervisor or virtio-fs daemon binary, executing code as root on the host. This issue is fixed in version 4.0.0.

CVSS v3
9.6
EG Score
9.6CRITICALmedium confidence
EG Risk
43
EG Risk 43/100CISA SSVC

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
Severity96% × 45%
Exploitation1% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
CISA SSVC: Track at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.
EPSS PROB
0.6%
EPSS %ILE
47th
KEV
Not listed

CISA SSVCTrack at low or medium mission impact; Track* at high (mission-essential systems).

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines.

Exploitation none (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it: high means the affected system is essential to your organisation's mission, or its compromise could cause irreversible harm to people. CISA's decision table

Published

August 7, 2026

Last Modified

September 9, 2026

Advisory Details (4)

Auto-updated Sep 30, 2026
🔬 Proof of concept available. Patch available. Sources: github_commit, github.
generic

oss-security - Re: Vulnerability in Kata Containers runtimes (both rust and go) (CVE-2026-50540)

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/08/24/1
generic

oss-security - Vulnerability in Kata Containers runtimes (both rust and go) (CVE-2026-50540)

http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2026/08/23/3
github Patch Available🟡 PoC Available

Config Path Annotation Arbitrary File Loading · Advisory · kata-containers/kata-containers · GitHub

https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/security/advisories/GHSA-mp2j-xm59-qfgw
github_commit

commit 03cc67007609 (kata-containers/kata-containers)

Fix landed in kata-containers/kata-containers commit 03cc67007609 — awaiting tagged release

https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/commit/03cc670076099530f4e1e9cb22849afdafb20f65

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-50540(1)

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

Weakness Classification(2)

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

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 27× in last 7d / 143× 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 256 total refreshes for this CVE.

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

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Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2026-50540?
CVE-2026-50540 is a critical vulnerability published on August 7, 2026. Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. Prior to version 4.0.0, kata-runtime is vulnerable to host code execution via an unvalidated configuration path annotation. The runtime accepts an…
When was CVE-2026-50540 disclosed?
CVE-2026-50540 was first published on August 7, 2026, with the most recent update on September 9, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2026-50540 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-50540 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0.6% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (47th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-50540?
CVE-2026-50540 has a CVSS base score of 9.6 (a secondary CVSS source that NVD displays; NVD's own analysis pending).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-50540?
A fix for CVE-2026-50540 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory. The vendor advisories EchelonGraph has for CVE-2026-50540 are linked in the Vendor Advisories panel on this page.

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