CVE-2026-12080

Qemu-kvm: qemu-guest-agent: local privilege escalation via symlink attack in guest-ssh-add-authorized-keys

CVE-2026-12080 is fixed in 21 products on 1 platform, first by DEBIAN-CVE-2026-12080, released July 20, 2026. It is not reported as exploited. Patch Radar priority: High.

High
CVSS
7.3
Moderate
Exploitation
None reported
No vendor assessment
CISA KEV
Not listed
Not in the Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog
EPSS
0.0014
3rd percentile

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.

Where it's fixed

ProductFixed inFixReleased
Linux
qemu · Debian 14 1:11.1.2+ds-1 DEBIAN-CVE-2026-12080 Jul 20, 2026
qemu-guest-agent · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-guest-agent · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-guest-agent · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-img · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-img · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-img · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm · rocky 9 7:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RLSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-audio-pa · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-audio-pa · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-audio-pa · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-block-blkio · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-block-blkio · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-block-blkio · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-block-curl · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-block-curl · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-block-curl · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-block-rbd · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-block-rbd · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-block-rbd · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-common · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-common · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-common · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-core · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-core · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-core · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-display-virtio-gpu · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-display-virtio-gpu · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-display-virtio-gpu · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-display-virtio-gpu-ccw · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-display-virtio-gpu-ccw · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-display-virtio-gpu-pci · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-display-virtio-gpu-pci · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-display-virtio-gpu-pci · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-display-virtio-vga · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-display-virtio-vga · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-display-virtio-vga · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-usb-host · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-usb-host · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-usb-host · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-usb-redirect · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-usb-redirect · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-device-usb-redirect · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-docs · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-docs · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-docs · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-tools · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-tools · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-tools · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-ui-egl-headless · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-ui-egl-headless · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-ui-egl-headless · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-ui-opengl · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-kvm-ui-opengl · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-kvm-ui-opengl · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-pr-helper · RHEL 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 RHSA-2026:88421 Oct 24, 2026
qemu-pr-helper · almalinux 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9.alma.1 ALSA-2026:88421 Nov 7, 2026
qemu-pr-helper · ol 9 17:10.1.0-17.el9_8.9 ELSA-2026-88421 Nov 7, 2026

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