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CVE-2026-49237

Local Privilege Escalation in Canonical Multipass

HIGH
7.8
CVSS Score
Published: May 28, 2026 at 01:22 PM UTC
Updated: October 14, 2026 at 08:10 PM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorMultipass· also runs on 1 platform

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Severity
HIGH7.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.1%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

An issue was discovered in Canonical Multipass for macOS before version 1.16.3 due to an incomplete fix for CVE-2025-5199. While the patch in version 1.16.0 updated the ownership of the multipassd daemon binary to root:wheel, five co-located binaries (multipass, qemu-img, qemu-system-aarch64, qemu-system-x86_64, and sshfs_server) in /Library/Application Support/com.canonical.multipass/bin/ retain ownership by the installing user and remain writable. Because the root LaunchDaemon (com.canonical.multipassd.plist) configures a PATH environment variable that prioritizes this user-writable directory and invokes these auxiliary binaries by their bare names, a local attacker can replace an auxiliary binary (such as qemu-img) with a malicious wrapper. When the root daemon subsequently triggers the binary during routine execution (e.g., via multipass launch), the malicious code executes with root privileges, leading to local privilege escalation.

Affected

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

Multipass· Canonical
95%
v < 1.16.3
Affected range stops below 1.16.3, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
apple-macos (environment)

Runs on — not affected

The affected product only carries this flaw when running on these platforms. The platforms themselves are not vulnerable.

Remediation

No guide yet

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

Patch and advisory references

References (1)

Vendor AdvisoryExploitThird Party Advisory
Source: cverecord
https://github.com/canonical/multipass/security/advisories/GHSA-r2xg-x32f-23c5

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

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

CVSS

7.8HIGHcanonical
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-276

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