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runc container breakout through process.cwd trickery and leaked fds

Type: advisorySources: OSV

runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers on Linux according to the OCI specification. In runc 1.1.11 and earlier, due to an internal file descriptor leak, an attacker could cause a newly-spawned container process (from runc exec) to have a working directory in the host filesystem namespace, allowing for a container escape by giving access to the host filesystem ("attack 2"). The same attack could be used by a malicious image to allow a container process to gain access to the host filesystem through runc run ("attack 1"). Variants of attacks 1 and 2 could be also be used to overwrite semi-arbitrary host binaries, allowing for complete container escapes ("attack 3a" and "attack 3b"). runc 1.1.12 includes patches for this issue.

Products
Not specified
Affected versions
Not specified
Fixed versions
Not specified
CVEs
CVE-2024-21626
Confirmed fixed CVEs
Not specified
Updated in this feed
7 Nov 2026, 03:47 UTC · Revision 1

Source evidence

runc container breakout through process.cwd trickery and leaked fds

core-osv · Original source

Published 31 Jan 2024, 21:31 UTC

runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers on Linux according to the OCI specification. In runc 1.1.11 and earlier, due to an internal file descriptor leak, an attacker could cause a newly-spawned container process (from runc exec) to have a working directory in the host filesystem namespace, allowing for a container escape by giving access to the host filesystem ("attack 2"). The same attack could be used by a malicious image to allow a container process to gain access to the host filesystem through runc run ("attack 1"). Variants of attacks 1 and 2 could be also be used to overwrite semi-arbitrary host binaries, allowing for complete container escapes ("attack 3a" and "attack 3b"). runc 1.1.12 includes patches for this issue.

osv:CVE-2024-21626
Complete source record
{
  "id": "88ad62f1d51fa0e2c2bcc0e0b67914a804cf6269182c6fc4fea0c237db2e9491",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2024-21626",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "runc container breakout through process.cwd trickery and leaked fds",
    "summary": "runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers on Linux according to the OCI specification. In runc 1.1.11 and earlier, due to an internal file descriptor leak, an attacker could cause a newly-spawned container process (from runc exec) to have a working directory in the host filesystem namespace, allowing for a container escape by giving access to the host filesystem (\"attack 2\"). The same attack could be used by a malicious image to allow a container process to gain access to the host filesystem through runc run (\"attack 1\"). Variants of attacks 1 and 2 could be also be used to overwrite semi-arbitrary host binaries, allowing for complete container escapes (\"attack 3a\" and \"attack 3b\"). runc 1.1.12 includes patches for this issue.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2024-21626",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2024-21626",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2024-21626",
        "GHSA-xr7r-f8xq-vfvv",
        "GO-2024-2491"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/opencontainers/runc",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "12644e614e25b05da6fd08a38ffa0cfe1903fdec"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "51d5e94601ceffbbd85688df1c928ecccbfa4685"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "02120488a4c0fc487d1ed2867e901eeed7ce8ecf"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "v1.0.0-rc93"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "1.1.12"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "AFFECTED_FIELD",
                    "strategy": "StringRangeExpression"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "02120488a4c0fc487d1ed2867e901eeed7ce8ecf"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "51d5e94601ceffbbd85688df1c928ecccbfa4685"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_TAG",
                    "original_tag": "v1.1.12"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2024-21626.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:49.617446513Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/releases/tag/v1.1.12",
        "https://lists.debian.org/debian-lts-announce/2024/02/msg00005.html",
        "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/2NLXNE23Q5ESQUAI22Z7A63JX2WMPJ2J/",
        "https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/SYMO3BANINS6RGFQFKPRG4FIOJ7GWYTL/",
        "https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2024/cve-2024-21626.json",
        "https://www.vicarius.io/vsociety/posts/leaky-vessels-part-1-cve-2024-21626",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0645",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0662",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0666",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0670",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0684",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0717",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0748",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0752",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0755",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0756",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0757",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0758",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0759",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0760",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:0764",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:10149",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:10520",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:10525",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:10841",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:1270",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2024:4597",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:0115",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:0650",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:1711",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:2441",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:2701",
        "https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:2710",
        "https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-21626",
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2024/21xxx/CVE-2024-21626.json",
        "https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/security/advisories/GHSA-xr7r-f8xq-vfvv",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2024-21626",
        "https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2258725",
        "https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/commit/02120488a4c0fc487d1ed2867e901eeed7ce8ecf"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-403",
          "CWE-668"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2024/21xxx/CVE-2024-21626.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2024-21626",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 517873,
  "published_at": "2024-01-31T21:31:14.391+00:00"
}