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.
Metrics
Affected Vendors & Products
References
History
Mon, 01 Jun 2026 13:30:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| First Time appeared |
Apple
Apple macos |
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| CPEs | cpe:2.3:a:canonical:multipass:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* cpe:2.3:o:apple:macos:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:* |
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| Vendors & Products |
Apple
Apple macos |
Thu, 28 May 2026 17:00:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| First Time appeared |
Canonical
Canonical multipass |
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| Vendors & Products |
Canonical
Canonical multipass |
Thu, 28 May 2026 16:30:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
|---|---|---|
| Metrics |
ssvc
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Thu, 28 May 2026 14:15:00 +0000
| Type | Values Removed | Values Added |
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| Description | 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. | |
| Title | Local Privilege Escalation in Canonical Multipass | |
| Weaknesses | CWE-276 | |
| References |
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| Metrics |
cvssV3_1
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Status: PUBLISHED
Assigner: canonical
Published: 2026-05-28T13:22:42.840Z
Updated: 2026-05-28T15:15:27.077Z
Reserved: 2026-05-28T12:03:02.295Z
Link: CVE-2026-49237
Updated: 2026-05-28T15:15:23.629Z
Status : Analyzed
Published: 2026-05-28T14:16:24.270
Modified: 2026-06-01T13:27:32.780
Link: CVE-2026-49237
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