CVE-2026-49237

An issue was discovered in Canonical Multipass for macOS before version 1.16.3 due to an incomplete fix for CVE-2025-5199. While the patch in version 1.16.0 updated the ownership of the multipassd daemon binary to root:wheel, five co-located binaries (multipass, qemu-img, qemu-system-aarch64, qemu-system-x86_64, and sshfs_server) in /Library/Application Support/com.canonical.multipass/bin/ retain ownership by the installing user and remain writable. Because the root LaunchDaemon (com.canonical.multipassd.plist) configures a PATH environment variable that prioritizes this user-writable directory and invokes these auxiliary binaries by their bare names, a local attacker can replace an auxiliary binary (such as qemu-img) with a malicious wrapper. When the root daemon subsequently triggers the binary during routine execution (e.g., via multipass launch), the malicious code executes with root privileges, leading to local privilege escalation.
References
Configurations

Configuration 1 (hide)

AND
cpe:2.3:a:canonical:multipass:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:o:apple:macos:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

History

01 Jun 2026, 13:27

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time Canonical
Apple
Canonical multipass
Apple macos
References () https://github.com/canonical/multipass/security/advisories/GHSA-r2xg-x32f-23c5 - () https://github.com/canonical/multipass/security/advisories/GHSA-r2xg-x32f-23c5 - Third Party Advisory, Exploit
CPE cpe:2.3:o:apple:macos:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
cpe:2.3:a:canonical:multipass:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

28 May 2026, 14:16

Type Values Removed Values Added
New CVE

Information

Published : 2026-05-28 14:16

Updated : 2026-06-01 13:27


NVD link : CVE-2026-49237

Mitre link : CVE-2026-49237

CVE.ORG link : CVE-2026-49237


JSON object : View

Products Affected

canonical

  • multipass

apple

  • macos
CWE
CWE-276

Incorrect Default Permissions