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Lima: An arbitrary user in a QEMU VM could gain the root privilege in the VM via the guest agent socket

High severity GitHub Reviewed Published Jun 19, 2026 in lima-vm/lima • Updated Aug 14, 2026

Package

gomod github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 (Go)

Affected versions

<= 2.1.2

Patched versions

2.1.3

Description

Impact

On an instance of Lima running with qemu driver, an arbitrary user in the VM could access /run/lima-guestagent.sock when the guest agent is enabled.

This could result in running an arbitrary command with the root privileges in the VM (not on the host), as lima-guestagent.sock provides the tunneling service for an arbitrary address, including a Unix socket address for privileged daemons like D-Bus.

This vulnerability is not exploitable on vz driver, as the guest agent uses vsocks instead of Unix sockets.

Patches

Patched in Lima v2.1.3 (8a45892378d22f40505c31a38f786a07701b6d50)

Note

The default user account in the VM can still run an arbitrary command as the root via the guest agent socket.
This is not a vulnerability, as the user can already run an arbitrary command with sudo by design.

Workarounds

  • On macOS hosts, use vz driver instead of qemu (limactl create --vm-type=vz. Default since v1.0.)
  • Or, disable the guest agent (limactl create --plain)

References

@AkihiroSuda AkihiroSuda published to lima-vm/lima Jun 19, 2026
Published by the National Vulnerability Database Jul 10, 2026
Published to the GitHub Advisory Database Aug 14, 2026
Reviewed Aug 14, 2026
Last updated Aug 14, 2026

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS score

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

This score estimates the probability of this vulnerability being exploited within the next 30 days. Data provided by FIRST.
(3rd percentile)

Weaknesses

Incorrect Default Permissions

During installation, installed file permissions are set to allow anyone to modify those files. Learn more on MITRE.

Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere

The product exposes a resource to the wrong control sphere, providing unintended actors with inappropriate access to the resource. Learn more on MITRE.

CVE ID

CVE-2026-53657

GHSA ID

GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2

Source code

Credits

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