CVE-2026-49238: Canonical Multipass · Path Traversal
Affects Canonical MultipassSource CVE Database V5
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.4 High : upgrade to 1.16.3 soon.
Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 11:52 UTC
- EPSS
- 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 43% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
- Patch
- Available – fixed in 1.16.3
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:NExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 28 May 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors
A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 30 Oct 2026.
What to do
Upgrade Multipass and canonical/multipass to 1.16.3.
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| CanonicalMultipass | Affected
| Fixed in
|
GitHubcanonical/multipasspkg:github/canonical/multipassOther threats | Affected
| Fixed in
|
Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.
AI-suggested
The vulnerability affects Multipass versions before 1.16.3, so upgrading to version 1.16.3 or later is expected to address the issue once the vendor releases the fix. Until then, restrict root access inside guest VMs and monitor for suspicious activity related to SFTP server interactions. Avoid running untrusted code with root privileges inside guest VMs.
Description
An issue was discovered in Canonical Multipass before version 1.16.3. The host-side SFTP server component (sshfs_server), which executes with root privileges on the host, contains a path containment bypass vulnerability within its validate_path function in src/sshfs_mount/sftp_server.cpp. The function performs a plain string prefix comparison on requested paths without path separator validation or dot-dot (..) normalization. A local attacker with root privileges inside a guest virtual machine can bypass the FUSE layer by injecting raw SFTP frames (such as an SSH_FXP_OPEN request) directly into the sshfs_server process stdin/stdout pipes via procfs. By supplying a path containing directory traversal sequences that match the allowed mount prefix, the attacker can force the host-side root process to resolve the traversal and open files outside the designated mount boundary. This allows a guest-side user to read arbitrary files on the host filesystem, resulting in a virtual machine escape.