Vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10
CVE-2026-12080
A flaw was found in the QEMU Guest Agent (qga). A local unprivileged user can exploit a vulnerability in the guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys command handler by manipulating symbolic links. This can occur either through a deterministic directory-symlink bypass or a Time-of-Check to Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) file-symlink race. Successful exploitation allows the attacker to gain ownership of arbitrary root-owned files or directories, leading to root access. This vulnerability requires an external management layer (e.g., libvirt) to trigger the affected code path.
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.3 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.001 (3.0th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 3rd percentile — 3.0% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.001 · change: -0.000
Affected products
Weakness classification (CWE)
Public proof-of-concept exploits
References
- access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-12080 (vdb-entry)
- bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi (issue-tracking)
- gitlab.com/qemu-project/qemu/-/work_items/3929
- access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:88421 (vendor-advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-12080?
- CVE-2026-12080 is a high-severity vulnerability in Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10, classified under UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following. CVSS score: 7.3/10. Published 2026-07-20.
- How severe is CVE-2026-12080?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.3 out of 10.
- Is CVE-2026-12080 known to be exploited?
- 1 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.