Lima: An arbitrary user in a QEMU VM could gain the root privilege in the VM via the guest agent socket
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub.
Summary
Lima launches Linux virtual machines, typically on macOS, for running containerd. Prior to 2.1.3, on an instance of Lima running with the qemu driver, an arbitrary user in the VM could access /run/lima-guestagent.sock when the guest agent is enabled, which could result in running arbitrary commands with root privileges in the VM because the guest agent socket provides tunneling for arbitrary addresses, including Unix socket addresses for privileged daemons like D-Bus. This issue is fixed in version 2.1.3.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Total
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| lima-vm | lima | before 2.1.3 | 2.1.3 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 (Go) | before 2.1.3 | 2.1.3 | Patch available | GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 |
- lima Vendorlima-vm Affected before 2.1.3 Fixed in 2.1.3 Patch available CNA
- github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 (Go) Vendor— Affected before 2.1.3 Fixed in 2.1.3 Patch available GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2
Remediation
- Fix · CNA lima (lima-vm) Fixed in 2.1.3
- Fix · GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 (Go) Fixed in 2.1.3 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-53657
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2
References
Other 5
- https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/security/advisories/GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2
- https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/commit/8a45892378d22f40505c31a38f786a07701b6d50
- https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/commit/b08cae8a670cf916d5da11c48a6de76dabd89678
- https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/releases/tag/v2.1.3
- https://github.com/lima-vm/lima
Sources
- CVE-2026-53657 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-53657 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
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