Canonical LXD up to 4.0.11/5.0.7 Image Metadata Template path traversal

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as very critical has been found in Canonical LXD up to 4.0.11/5.0.7. This impacts an unknown function of the component Image Metadata Template. The manipulation leads to path traversal. This vulnerability is referenced as CVE-2026-16033. Remote exploitation of the attack is possible. No exploit is available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability was found in Canonical LXD up to 4.0.11/5.0.7 and classified as very critical. This issue affects some unknown processing of the component Image Metadata Template. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a path traversal vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-22. The product uses external input to construct a pathname that is intended to identify a file or directory that is located underneath a restricted parent directory, but the product does not properly neutralize special elements within the pathname that can cause the pathname to resolve to a location that is outside of the restricted directory. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. The summary by CVE is:

A path traversal vulnerability in LXD allows an attacker to achieve arbitrary host file read or unconstrained file creation. When processing image metadata templates, LXD fails to properly sanitize or restrict template file paths from escaping the instance templates directory (specifically affecting virtual machine / QEMU driver execution paths). An attacker can exploit this flaw by providing a crafted image archive with malicious template directives containing path traversal sequences, causing LXD to access or write files outside the intended template directory on the host system.

It is possible to read the advisory at github.com. The identification of this vulnerability is CVE-2026-16033 since 07/17/2026. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be initiated remotely. The technical details are unknown and an exploit is not publicly available. The pricing for an exploit might be around USD $0-$5k at the moment (estimation calculated on 08/12/2026). The attack technique deployed by this issue is T1006 according to MITRE ATT&CK.

Upgrading to version 4.0.12 or 5.0.8 eliminates this vulnerability.

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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

License

• open-source

Website

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

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CPE 2.2info

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