CVE-2020-2024

Host denial of service via symlink-following teardown

Published May 19, 2020 · Updated Sep 17, 2024

Improper link resolution in Kata Containers before 1.11.0 allows guest OS users to interrupt host services during container teardown. During cleanup, kata-runtime follows a guest-controlled container rootfs symlink and passes the resulting path to recursive unmount handling instead of confining traversal to the container host path. Control of a Kata guest is required; teardown can unmount an arbitrary host mount point and mounts beneath it, causing a host denial of service.

CVSS severity6.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.37%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Improper link resolution in Kata Containers before 1.11.0 allows guest OS users to interrupt host services during container teardown. During cleanup, kata-runtime follows a guest-controlled container rootfs symlink and passes the resulting path to recursive unmount handling instead of confining traversal to the container host path. Control of a Kata guest is required; teardown can unmount an arbitrary host mount point and mounts beneath it, causing a host denial of service.

The record

CVE
CVE-2020-2024
Published
May 19, 2020
Updated
Sep 17, 2024
Vendor
Kata Containers
Product
Kata Containers
Classifications
CWE-59, T1499.004
Attack vector
local
Privileges
authenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. May 19, 2020CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Sep 17, 2024Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=unspecified <1.11.0

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesauthenticated

What is affected?

Kata Containers · Kata Containersversion=unspecified <1.11.0

Published CVSS scores

2.1NIST NVDAV:L/AC:L/Au:N/C:N/I:N/A:P
6.5Palo Alto Networks, Inc.CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-59Improper Link Resolution Before File Access ('Link Following')
T1499.004Application or System Exploitation

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

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Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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