Canonical LXD up to 4.0.11/5.0.7/5.21.5/6.9 Image Import metadata.yaml symlink

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability categorized as very critical has been discovered in Canonical LXD up to 4.0.11/5.0.7/5.21.5/6.9. Affected by this issue is some unknown functionality of the file metadata.yaml of the component Image Import. Executing a manipulation can lead to symlink. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2026-63293. The attack can be executed remotely. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability has been found in Canonical LXD up to 4.0.11/5.0.7/5.21.5/6.9 and classified as very critical. This vulnerability affects an unknown functionality of the file metadata.yaml of the component Image Import. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a symlink vulnerability. The CWE definition for the vulnerability is CWE-61. The product, when opening a file or directory, does not sufficiently account for when the file is a symbolic link that resolves to a target outside of the intended control sphere. This could allow an attacker to cause the product to operate on unauthorized files. As an impact it is known to affect confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

A link following vulnerability in LXD allows an attacker to achieve arbitrary file read and write operations on the host system. When importing or unpacking an image archive, LXD fails to validate whether the metadata.yaml file is a symbolic link. An attacker can exploit this flaw by providing a crafted image archive with a symlinked metadata.yaml file pointing to target file paths on the host system.

The advisory is shared for download at github.com. This vulnerability was named CVE-2026-63293 since 07/16/2026. The exploitation appears to be easy. The attack can be initiated remotely. The exploitation needs additional levels of successful authentication. Successful exploitation requires user interaction by the victim. There are known technical details, but no exploit is available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $0-$5k (estimation calculated on 08/12/2026).

Upgrading to version 4.0.12, 5.0.8, 5.21.6 or 6.10 eliminates this vulnerability.

Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Vendor

• Canonical

Name

• LXD

Version

• 4.0.0
• 4.0.1
• 4.0.2
• 4.0.3
• 4.0.4
• 4.0.5
• 4.0.6
• 4.0.7
• 4.0.8
• 4.0.9
• 4.0.10
• 4.0.11
• 5.0.0
• 5.0.1
• 5.0.2
• 5.0.3
• 5.0.4
• 5.0.5
• 5.0.6
• 5.0.7
• 5.21.0
• 5.21.1
• 5.21.2
• 5.21.3
• 5.21.4
• 5.21.5
• 6.0
• 6.1
• 6.2
• 6.3
• 6.4
• 6.5
• 6.6
• 6.7
• 6.8
• 6.9

License

• open-source

Website

• Product: https://github.com/canonical/lxd/

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