runc: Malicious image with /dev symlink can trigger limited host filesystem integrity violations

{
  "id": "66ad39d8136cc65c29bcf2ef05f89d3f18d23a15192ee85cbbfcf3385c984440",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2026-41579",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "runc: Malicious image with /dev symlink can trigger limited host filesystem integrity violations",
    "summary": "runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification. In versions prior to 1.3.6, 1.4.0-rc.1, 1.4.0-rc.12, 1.5.0-rc.1, and 1.5.0-rc.1, when setting up the container rootfs, setupPtmx and setupDevSymlinks call os.Remove and os.Symlink with a filepath.Join string which allow an image with /dev as a symlink to trick runc into deleting files called ptmx on the host or creating a hardcoded set of symlinks with specific names and targets in an arbitrary pre-existing host directory. This issue is not exploitable under Docker, because Docker creates a top-level read-only layer that masks any malicious /dev symlink present in the container image — unlike some other Linux container tooling, whose higher-level runtimes built on runc remain exposed to exploitation via a malicious image. This issue has been fixed in versions 1.3.6, 1.4.3 and 1.5.0.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2026-41579",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "low",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2026-41579",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2026-41579",
        "GHSA-xjvp-4fhw-gc47",
        "GO-2026-5761"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:N"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/opencontainers/runc",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "491b69bab9fa206b984fb26ba07d3110d62e671f"
                },
                {
                  "introduced": "8bd78a9977e604c4d5f67a7415d7b8b8c109cdc4"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "bb14dabeb7185bb72c8c86735d090dcb20f36587"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "864db8042dbb"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:runc:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "1.3.6"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  },
                  {
                    "cpe": "cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:runc:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*",
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "1.4.0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "1.4.3"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "CPE_RANGE"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "864db8042dbb"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "v1.4.0-rc.1",
            "v1.3.0-rc.1",
            "v1.2.0-rc.3",
            "v1.0.0-rc2",
            "v0.0.8",
            "v0.0.7",
            "v0.0.6",
            "v0.0.5",
            "v0.0.4",
            "v0.0.2",
            "v0.0.3",
            "v0.0.1"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2026-41579.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:23.638302989Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/41xxx/CVE-2026-41579.json",
        "https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/security/advisories/GHSA-xjvp-4fhw-gc47",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-41579",
        "https://github.com/opencontainers/runc/commit/864db8042dbb"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-61"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2026/41xxx/CVE-2026-41579.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2026-41579",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 490227,
  "published_at": "2026-07-01T00:02:08.639+00:00"
}