Reference page — cumulative record through Wednesday, August 19, 2026 UTC. Reference pages update as the archive grows; only dated daily editions are immutable pages of record.
kata-containers kata-containers — Kata Containers have VM Escape via virtiofsd Argument Injection through Default-Enabled Pod Annotations
AV AC AT PR UI VC VI VA CVSS EPSS %ile KEV
N L N L N N N N 5.8 .0045 37.5 —
AFFECTED
Product Versions Fixed
kata-containers < 3.31.0 – —
TIMELINE
May 5 Reserved by GitHub_M
Jul 23 EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-44210 (kata-containers). Public exploit reference added.
Jul 23 Published (CNA: GitHub_M)
Aug 6 EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-44210 (kata-containers). Public exploit reference added.
Description
Kata Containers is an open source project focusing on a standard implementation of lightweight Virtual Machines (VMs) that perform like containers. Versions prior to 3.31.0 ship with a default configuration that allows pod creators to inject arbitrary command-line arguments into the virtiofsd process through the `io.katacontainers.config.hypervisor.virtio_fs_extra_args` pod annotation. By injecting `-o source=/` along with `--no-announce-submounts` and `--sandbox=none`, an attacker can override the virtiofsd shared directory to serve the entire host root filesystem into the guest VM. Combined with the `kernel_params` annotation (also enabled by default) to activate the agent debug console, the attacker can mount the host filesystem from inside the VM and read or write any file on the host, including /etc/shadow. Version 3.31.0 patches the issue.
Lifecycle
Complete event history — 4 events, chronological
| Date | Event | Detail |
|---|
| May 5, 2026 | Reserved | Reserved by GitHub_M |
| July 23, 2026 | EXPLOIT PUBLISHED | EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-44210 (kata-containers). Public exploit reference added. |
| July 23, 2026 | Published | Published (CNA: GitHub_M) |
| August 6, 2026 | EXPLOIT PUBLISHED | EXPLOIT PUBLISHED — CVE-2026-44210 (kata-containers). Public exploit reference added. |
Affected
Affected products and packages — 1 row
| Vendor | Product / Package | Ecosystem | Version introduced | Fixed |
|---|
| kata-containers | kata-containers | — | < 3.31.0 | — |
About this page
This is a reference page, not a dated page of record. It assembles the complete lifecycle of CVE-2026-44210 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 Wednesday, August 19, 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.