Privilege escalation via ignored certificate restrictions
Published Dec 5, 2024 · Updated Aug 28, 2025
Improper authorization in Canonical LXD before 5.21.1 allows local users with restricted CA-signed certificates to gain full LXD access. In PKI mode, the TLS authorization path treats a trust-store certificate as unrestricted whenever server.ca is present, ignoring its restricted flag. The flaw requires non-default PKI mode, core.trust_ca_certificates=false, and a CA-signed restricted certificate; the holder can read server configuration and exercise unrestricted LXD access.
Summary
What happened
Improper authorization in Canonical LXD before 5.21.1 allows local users with restricted CA-signed certificates to gain full LXD access. In PKI mode, the TLS authorization path treats a trust-store certificate as unrestricted whenever server.ca is present, ignoring its restricted flag. The flaw requires non-default PKI mode, core.trust_ca_certificates=false, and a CA-signed restricted certificate; the holder can read server configuration and exercise unrestricted LXD access.
The record
- CVE
- CVE-2024-6219
- Published
- Dec 5, 2024
- Updated
- Aug 28, 2025
- Vendor
- Canonical
- Product
- LXD
- Classifications
- CWE-295, T1078
- Attack vector
- local
- Privileges
- authenticated
Timeline
How it unfolded
- Dec 5, 2024CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
- Aug 28, 2025Record 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.
- Affected versionversion=0 <5.21.1
What conditions does exploitation require?
What is affected?
Published CVSS scores
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.
Public exploit references
- Canonical PKI-mode restricted-certificate proof of conceptproof of concept · demonstrated
Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.
Technologies
Your stack
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Your stack
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