Reference page — cumulative record through Sunday, October 4, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.

CVE-2026-16033

CVE-2026-16033HIGH

Canonical LXD — Arbitrary file read+write on host via templates/ symlink in malicious image

  AV  AC  PR  UI  S  C  I  A   CVSS    EPSS   %ile   KEV
   N   L   L   N  C  H  L  N    8.5   .0035   26.5     —

AFFECTED
  Product  Versions  Fixed
  LXD      4.0.0 –   —

TIMELINE
  Jul 17  Reserved by canonical
  Aug 12  Published (CNA: canonical)
  Sep 11  EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-16033 (Canonical LXD). Public exploit reference added.

CWE-22 · CNA: canonical · CVSS v3.1 · 1 reference · NVD status: Analyzed

Description

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.

Lifecycle

Complete event history — 3 events, chronological
Date	Event	Detail
July 17, 2026	Reserved	Reserved by canonical
August 12, 2026	Published	Published (CNA: canonical)
September 11, 2026	EXPLOIT PUBLISHED	EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-16033 (Canonical LXD). Public exploit reference added.

Affected

Affected products and packages — 1 row
Vendor	Product / Package	Ecosystem	Version introduced	Fixed
Canonical	LXD	—	4.0.0	—

Weaknesses

CWE-22

References (1)

https://github.com/canonical/lxd/security/advisories/GHSA-9hcm-hxh5-7xxh [Vendor Advisory, Exploit]

Authoritative record: CVE-2026-16033 at cve.org

Vendors: canonical

Weaknesses: CWE-22

About this page

This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2026-16033 from the CVE Program record, NVD enrichment, the CISA KEV catalog, EPSS, and OSV advisories. The box score's numbers (CVSS, EPSS, KEV status) are current as of Sunday, October 4, 2026 UTC and are re-derived as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record. The authoritative source for this identifier is cve.org.