CVE-2026-33711: Incus vulnerable to local privilege escalation through VM screenshot path
Noroxi assessment
Priority: Monitor (action score 18/100)
- The sources we track (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, Metasploit, Nuclei, GitHub) show no public exploit code or exploitation in the wild.
- Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days: 0.36% (FIRST EPSS).
- Someone with local access to the system can trigger it. A low-privileged account is enough. No user action is required. No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
- Fixed version: incus (Debian:14) 6.0.6-2; github.com/lxc/incus/v6 (Go) 6.23.0; incus (openSUSE:Tumbleweed) 6.23-1.1.
Low priority for now. Upgrade to incus (Debian:14) 6.0.6-2; github.com/lxc/incus/v6 (Go) 6.23.0; incus (openSUSE:Tumbleweed) 6.23-1.1 or later.
Generated automatically from the record's data: CVSS (NVD and CNA), CISA KEV and SSVC, FIRST EPSS, exploit sources, fixed versions. How we calculate it
Primary sources: NVD · CVE.org · FIRST EPSS
Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. Incus provides an API to retrieve VM screenshots. That API relies on the use of a temporary file for QEMU to write the screenshot to which is then picked up and sent to the user prior to deletion. As versions prior to 6.23.0 use predictable paths under /tmp for this, an attacker with local access to the system can abuse this mechanism by creating their own symlinks ahead of time. On the vast majority of Linux systems, this will result in a "Permission denied" error when requesting a screenshot. That's because the Linux kernel has a security feature designed to block such attacks, `protected_symlinks`. On the rare systems with this purposefully disabled, it's then possible to trick Incus intro truncating and altering the mode and permissions of arbitrary files on the filesystem, leading to a potential denial of service or possible local privilege escalation. Version 6.23.0 fixes the issue.
- Published
- Mar 26, 2026
- Updated
- Jun 17, 2026
- EPSS
- 0.3% · 30th percentile
- CWE
- CWE-61
Report tools
Action score
18
Monitor
Low priority for now.
- CVSS
- 18 / 40 · 4.7 / 10
- CISA KEV
- 0 / 30 · Not listed
- EPSS
- 0 / 30 · 0.3%
CISA SSVC decision
- Exploitation
- proof of concept
- Automatable
- no
- Technical impact
- partial
Vulnrichment: CISA's decision-tree inputs.
CNA vs NVD score
- NVD
- —
- CNA · GitHub_M
- 4.7
- NVD has not scored this yet; the score shown is the CNA’s.
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P
The score given by the assigning authority versus NVD’s independent score. A gap means the severity is contested.
Get told when this record changes
- Not in KEV: no record of exploitation in the wild
- No public exploit code on record
- A fix has been released
If any of these changes, we'll tell you in the daily email digest.
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Noroxi analysis
What does it mean in your environment?
The assessment above is generated automatically from the record's data; it doesn't know your environment. Our team verifies on your systems whether this vulnerability is actually exploitable and which mitigation is enough.
We use this product, ask for helpAffected systems
Is your version affected?
Pick the product and type the version you run. It's compared with this record's version ranges in your browser; the version isn't sent anywhere.
| Vendor | Product | CPE |
|---|---|---|
| linuxcontainers | incus | cpe:2.3:a:linuxcontainers:incus |
Affected versions
NVD version ranges (for catalog products). Add the product to your stack with a version and matching uses these.
- linuxcontainers incusbefore 6.23.0
Versions reported by the vendor
Affected version ranges reported by the assigning authority (GitHub_M). Independent of NVD's CPE analysis and usually ahead of it.
lxc incus
- < 6.23.0affected
Package-level exposure
OSV and GitHub Advisory data: ecosystem, package and range. SBOM matching uses this table.
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian:13 | incus | from 0 | — |
| Debian:14 | incus | before 6.0.6-2 | 6.0.6-2 |
| Go | github.com/lxc/incus | from 0 | — |
| Go | github.com/lxc/incus/v6 | before 6.23.0 | 6.23.0 |
| openSUSE:Tumbleweed | incus | before 6.23-1.1 | 6.23-1.1 |
Same product
linuxcontainers: all recordsOther highest-scoring records for the same primary product.
- CVE-2026-33897Incus vulnerable to arbitrary file read and write through pongo templates39Monitor
- CVE-2026-33945Abitrary file write through systemd-creds option38Monitor
- CVE-2026-33898Local Incus UI web server vulnerable to nuthentication bypass35Monitor
Published before and after this one in the same product
- ← EarlierCVE-2026-23954Jan 22, 2026 · Incus container image templating arbitrary host file read and write34Monitor
- ← EarlierCVE-2026-33542Mar 26, 2026 · Incus does not verify combined fingerprint when downloading images from simplestreams servers22Monitor
- Later →CVE-2026-33743Mar 26, 2026 · Incus vulnerable to denial of source through crafted bucket backup file26Monitor
Remediation
Which version to upgrade to
Fix versions compiled from the vendor, package registries and Microsoft. Verify the vendor's note before upgrading.
| Product / package | Fixed version | Source |
|---|---|---|
| debian:incus | 6.0.6-2 · Debian:14 | Package registry (OSV) |
| Go:github.com/lxc/incus/v6 | 6.23.0 | Package registry (OSV) |
| opensuse:incus | 6.23-1.1 · openSUSE:Tumbleweed | Package registry (OSV) |
Exploit status
No known public exploit
No public exploit has been observed yet. That doesn't mean you're safe, only that the bar is a little higher.
Research context
For pentesters and researchers: attack profile, score disagreement, timeline, patch commits, credits, variant and chain candidates, bug bounty scope. All derived from existing data; no exploit code.
Timeline
From publication to today: proof of concept, Metasploit module, CISA KEV and fix record. Dates are as reported by the sources.
No dated events beyond publication.
No history yet (it accumulates with the daily EPSS job).
Patch and commit links
Commit, PR and diff links among the references. A starting point for patch-diffing and variant hunting; fixes, not exploits.
No commit or PR link among the references.
Credits
All researchersFinders, reporters and analysts named in the CNA record. Click a name for that researcher’s other records.
No credits in the CNA record.
Variant candidates
Same product, same weakness class, within 18 months. If the patch missed the root cause, the sibling bug is here.
No nightly-computed relations.
Chain candidates
An authentication bypass and a privilege-requiring bug in the same product, published close together: combined they may become an unauthenticated path.
—
Bug bounty scope
No known public program.
Source: bounty-targets-data (public HackerOne, Bugcrowd, Intigriti, YesWeHack listings).
Technical details
Attack conditions
- Someone with local access to the system can trigger it.
- A low-privileged account is enough.
- No user action is required.
- No special conditions are required; it is repeatable.
If successful
- Confidentiality
- Integrity
- Availability
- Attack vector
- Local
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- X
Weakness class (CWE)
CWE-61 · UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) FollowingCVSS vector
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:P/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X
nvd-secondary
Attack context
MITRE CAPEC attack patterns and ATT&CK techniques for this weakness class (CWE). A starting point for detection rules and threat hunting.
Attack patterns (CAPEC)
ATT&CK techniques
—
Change log
- Fix✗ → ✓
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