CVE-2024-21626

runc container breakout through process.cwd trickery and leaked fds

HIGH
8.6
CVSS Score
Published: January 31, 2024 at 09:31 PM UTC
Updated: September 17, 2026 at 12:17 PM UTC
8 products affected across 4 vendorsFedoraRuncOpenShift Container Platform

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Severity
HIGH8.6
Exploit prediction
EPSS 19%
SSVC
PoC

Description

runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers on Linux according to the OCI specification. In runc 1.1.11 and earlier, due to an internal file descriptor leak, an attacker could cause a newly-spawned container process (from runc exec) to have a working directory in the host filesystem namespace, allowing for a container escape by giving access to the host filesystem ("attack 2"). The same attack could be used by a malicious image to allow a container process to gain access to the host filesystem through runc run ("attack 1"). Variants of attacks 1 and 2 could be also be used to overwrite semi-arbitrary host binaries, allowing for complete container escapes ("attack 3a" and "attack 3b"). runc 1.1.12 includes patches for this issue.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < 1.1.12
Affected range stops below 1.1.12, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
v < 1.1.12
Affected range stops below 1.1.12, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:4.14.42-202411280904.p0.gcf4d04f.assembly.4.14.42.el9 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:4.15.41-202412091343.p0.gcf9680e.assembly.4.15.41.el9 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:4.16.24-202411220522.p0.gcc4fedc.assembly.4.16.24.el9 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:4.17.7-202411280904.p0.g129334d.assembly.4.17.7.el9 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 3:1.1.2-3.1.rhaos4.11.el8 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 3:1.1.6-5.1.rhaos4.12.el8 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4:1.1.12-1.rhaos4.13.el8 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 4:1.1.12-1.rhaos4.14.el8 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in v4.12.0-202503030130.p0.g7c2a284.assembly.stream.el8 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in v4.13.0-202503111300.p0.gb379980.assembly.stream.el8 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in v4.14.0-202503060906.p0.gb03f3f5.assembly.stream.el8 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in v4.15.0-202502171304.p0.gb74eb6d.assembly.stream.el8 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in v4.16.0-202501160405.p0.g300d9ad.assembly.stream.el9 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in v4.17.0-202501052337.p0.gbb33e13.assembly.stream.el9 (unaffected)
All versions
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:2.440.3.1718879390-3.el8 (unaffected)
Vendor states this is fixed in 0:4.15.1718879538-1.el8 (unaffected)
60%

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCPoCNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

8.6HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
REQUIRED
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-403CWE-668CWE-200

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