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
| Link | Resource |
|---|---|
| https://github.com/canonical/multipass/security/advisories/GHSA-r2xg-x32f-23c5 | Third Party Advisory Exploit |
Configurations
Configuration 1 (hide)
| AND |
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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 - 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
