GHSA-m38g-vww2-mvgx
### Summary A vulnerability in the Linux kernel's algif_aead subsystem (CVE-2026-31431, "copy.fail") allows an unprivileged container workload to corrupt arbitrary file page-cache pages via the AF_ALG crypto interface and splice(). On Talos Linux, this vulnerability can be chained into a complete node compromise: an attacker who can schedule a pod on a worker node can, without any elevated Kubernetes permissions, achieve arbitrary code execution as root on the host (by poisoning a binary inside a privileged pod, or poisoning a binary which runs with elevated privileges like a CNI binary), access host filesystem, including node secrets. The exploit does not require kernel debugging, race conditions, or any prior privileges beyond the ability to create a pod. ### Impact An attacker with the ability to deploy a Kubernetes pod on an affected node can: 1. Corrupt the page-cache of /usr/sbin/nft in the containerd snapshot layer shared between the attacker's pod and the kube-proxy DaemonSet. Because containerd reuses XFS page-cache pages across overlayfs mounts sharing the same lower layer, the corruption is immediately visible to all containers using that image layer — including privileged system DaemonSets. 2. Execute arbitrary code inside kube-proxy — a privileged DaemonSet running on every node with all Linux capabilities (privileged: true) and host network access — the next time kube-proxy invokes nft as part of its nftables reconciliation loop (typically within seconds). 3. At this point, an attacker achieved code execution inside a privileged pod, which allows to escape to the host. 4. Same attack can be planted by infiltrating other binaries running as privileged, for example a CNI plugin. ### Patches Upgrade to Talos v1.13.0 or Talos v1.12.7 which ships Linux kernel 6.18.25. The kernel fix for CVE-2026-31431 (algif_aead in-place optimization revert) was committed upstream in Linux 6.18.22 and is included in all Talos releases from v1.13.0 and Talos 1.12.7
Properties
- ghsa_id
- GHSA-m38g-vww2-mvgx
- summary
- Talos Linux has a local privilege escalation from untrusted workloads
- severity
- high
- cvss_score
- 7.5
- cve_id
- GHSA-m38g-vww2-mvgx
- cvss_vector
- CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
- is_ghsa_only
- true
- ghsa_published
- 2026-05-07T02:38:02Z
- source_url
- https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-m38g-vww2-mvgx
- ghsa_updated
- 2026-05-07T02:38:03Z
Related Entities (4)
REPORTED_BY (1)
VULNERABLE_TO (1)
AFFECTS (1)
HAS_WEAKNESS (1)
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