Incus container environment configuration newline injection
Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. In versions 6.20.0 and below, a user with the ability to launch a container with a custom YAML configuration (e.g a member of the ‘incus’ group) can create an environment variable containing newlines, which can be used to add additional configuration items in the container’s lxc.conf due to newline injection. This can allow adding arbitrary lifecycle hooks, ultimately resulting in arbitrary command execution on the host. Exploiting this issue on IncusOS requires a slight modification of the payload to change to a different writable directory for the validation step (e.g /tmp). This can be confirmed with a second container with /tmp mounted from the host (A privileged action for validation only). A fix is planned for versions 6.0.6 and 6.21.0, but they have not been released at the time of publication.
- Products
- Not specified
- Affected versions
- Not specified
- Fixed versions
- Not specified
- CVEs
- CVE-2026-23953
- Confirmed fixed CVEs
- Not specified
- Updated in this feed
- 4 Nov 2026, 09:04 UTC · Revision 1
Source evidence
Incus container environment configuration newline injection
core-osv · Original sourcePublished 22 Jan 2026, 21:39 UTC
Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. In versions 6.20.0 and below, a user with the ability to launch a container with a custom YAML configuration (e.g a member of the ‘incus’ group) can create an environment variable containing newlines, which can be used to add additional configuration items in the container’s lxc.conf due to newline injection. This can allow adding arbitrary lifecycle hooks, ultimately resulting in arbitrary command execution on the host. Exploiting this issue on IncusOS requires a slight modification of the payload to change to a different writable directory for the validation step (e.g /tmp). This can be confirmed with a second container with /tmp mounted from the host (A privileged action for validation only). A fix is planned for versions 6.0.6 and 6.21.0, but they have not been released at the time of publication.
osv:CVE-2026-23953
Complete source record
{
"id": "638b0ac10871d3684adfea096742267171b56332fc4ee13d7c01d228396d8fa9",
"url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-23953",
"method": "structured",
"payload": {
"kind": "advisory",
"title": "Incus container environment configuration newline injection",
"summary": "Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. In versions 6.20.0 and below, a user with the ability to launch a container with a custom YAML configuration (e.g a member of the ‘incus’ group) can create an environment variable containing newlines, which can be used to add additional configuration items in the container’s lxc.conf due to newline injection. This can allow adding arbitrary lifecycle hooks, ultimately resulting in arbitrary command execution on the host. Exploiting this issue on IncusOS requires a slight modification of the payload to change to a different writable directory for the validation step (e.g /tmp). This can be confirmed with a second container with /tmp mounted from the host (A privileged action for validation only). A fix is planned for versions 6.0.6 and 6.21.0, but they have not been released at the time of publication.",
"evidence": "osv:CVE-2026-23953",
"products": [],
"severity": "high",
"structured": {
"id": "CVE-2026-23953",
"aliases": [
"CVE-2026-23953",
"GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32",
"GO-2026-4359"
],
"metrics": [
{
"type": "CVSS_V3",
"score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:A/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N"
}
],
"affected": [
{
"ranges": [
{
"repo": "https://github.com/lxc/incus",
"type": "GIT",
"events": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"last_affected": "a87f49a2491fa3a0e74896c1f2322bd356c59ddc"
},
{
"introduced": "38d0bc57d4ae8926b0adfad475f2d4ca70a1c734"
},
{
"fixed": "6f11417f35cd3bcb7a2d5e3a6bc9a48558b4cd58"
}
],
"database_specific": {
"extracted_events": [
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "0"
},
{
"last_affected": "6.0.5"
}
],
"source": "CPE_RANGE"
},
{
"cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
"range": [
{
"introduced": "6.1.0"
},
{
"fixed": "6.21.0"
}
],
"source": "CPE_RANGE"
}
]
}
}
],
"versions": [
"v6.20.0",
"v6.19.1",
"v6.19.0",
"v6.0.5",
"v6.18.0",
"v6.17.0",
"v6.16.0",
"v6.0.4",
"v6.14.0",
"v6.15.0",
"v6.13.0",
"v6.12.0",
"v6.11.0",
"v6.10.1",
"v6.10.0",
"v6.9.0",
"v6.0.3",
"v6.8.0",
"v6.7.0",
"v6.6.0",
"v6.0.2",
"v6.5.0",
"v6.4.0",
"v6.3.0",
"v6.0.1",
"v6.2.0",
"v6.0.0",
"v6.1.0",
"v0.7.0",
"v0.6.0",
"v0.5.1",
"v0.5.0",
"v0.4.0",
"v0.3.0",
"v0.2.0",
"v0.1.0"
],
"database_specific": {
"source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-23953.json"
}
}
],
"modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:34.235558999Z",
"provider": "osv",
"references": [
"https://github.com/lxc/incus/blob/HEAD/internal/server/instance/drivers/driver_lxc.go#L1081",
"https://github.com/user-attachments/files/24473682/environment_newline_injection.sh",
"https://github.com/user-attachments/files/24473685/environment_newline_injection.patch",
"https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/23xxx/CVE-2026-23953.json",
"https://github.com/lxc/incus/security/advisories/GHSA-x6jc-phwx-hp32",
"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-23953"
],
"provider_metadata": {
"cwe_ids": [
"CWE-93"
],
"cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
"osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/23xxx/CVE-2026-23953.json"
}
},
"related_cves": [
{
"value": "CVE-2026-23953",
"evidence": "/id"
}
],
"security_relevant": true,
"severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
},
"source_id": "core-osv",
"document_id": 501316,
"published_at": "2026-01-22T21:39:41.015+00:00"
}