CVE-2026-24054: Kata Containers Runtime: Host block device can be hotplugged to the VM if the container image is malformed or contains no layers

Severity: critical (CVSS 10.0 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2026-01-29 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-754

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 3.26.0, when a container image is malformed or contains no layers, containerd falls back to bind-mounting an empty snapshotter directory for the container rootfs. When the Kata runtime attempts to mount the container rootfs, the bind mount causes the rootfs to be detected as a block device, leading to the underlying device being hotplugged to the guest. This can cause filesystem-level errors on the host due to double inode allocation, and may lead to the host's block device being mounted as read-only. Version 3.26.0 contains a patch for the issue.

Affected products

kata-containers: before 3.26.0 — fixed in 3.26.0

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: kata-containers 3.26.0. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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