CVE-2026-53657: Lima An Arbitrary User Vulnerability

HIGH
Advisory Identifier: GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2
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CVSS 8.2
CWE-668 CWE-276
Published
Advisory Summary

CVE-2026-53657 is a HIGH (CVSS 8.2) an arbitrary user vulnerability (CWE-668: Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere) affecting Lima libraries in the Go ecosystem. The issue involves an arbitrary user in a qemu vm could gain the root privilege in the vm via the guest agent socket. Remediation is available by upgrading affected packages to version 2.1.3.

CVE-2026-53657 at a Glance

CVE Identifier CVE-2026-53657
GHSA Identifier GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2
Severity HIGH
CVSS v3.1 Base Score 8.2
CWE Classification CWE-668: Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere
Affected Product Lima
Package Ecosystem Go
Published Date
Last Updated

Security Impact

CVSS: 8.2

The security impact metrics below are parsed directly from the CVSS v3.1 vector string (CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H).

Attack Vector Local (AV:L)
Attack Complexity Low (AC:L)
Privileges Required High (PR:H)
User Interaction None (UI:N)
Scope Changed (S:C)
Confidentiality High (C:H)
Integrity High (I:H)
Availability High (A:H)

How to Fix CVE-2026-53657

To remediate this vulnerability, upgrade all affected Lima dependencies to a patched release. Both direct and transitive dependencies should be checked, as frameworks or security libraries may pull in vulnerable versions transitively.

github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 fixed: 2.1.3 
Upgrade github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 to 2.1.3
Verify Direct and Transitive Dependencies

Run the following command in your project directory to verify that all resolved dependencies use the patched release: 

inspect dependencies for github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2

How to Check if You Are Affected

To determine whether your application is affected by CVE-2026-53657, inspect your project dependencies for Lima:

inspect dependencies for github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2

Analyze the terminal output to locate any version of Lima in your dependency tree. If any resolved version matches the vulnerable ranges listed in the table below (for example, versions earlier than 2.1.3), your application is affected.

Note: Verify declared build manifests and deployed runtime container environments.

Technical Details

Vulnerability Mechanism & Technical Analysis

This vulnerability is classified under CWE-668: Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere, where the product exposes a resource to the wrong control sphere, providing unintended actors with inappropriate access to the resource. In Lima, software state validation or input boundaries are circumvented during processing. Review the official source advisory statement below for specific affected components, classes, and reproduction details.

Source Advisory Statement

### Impact On an instance of Lima running with `qemu` driver, an arbitrary user in the VM could access `/run/lima-guestagent.sock` when the guest agent is enabled. This could result in running an arbitrary command with the root privileges in the VM (**not on the host**), as `lima-guestagent.sock` provides the tunneling service for an arbitrary address, including a Unix socket address for privileged daemons like D-Bus. This vulnerability is not exploitable on `vz` driver, as the guest agent uses vsocks instead of Unix sockets. ### Patches Patched in Lima v2.1.3 (8a45892378d22f40505c31a38f786a07701b6d50) > [!NOTE] > The default user account in the VM can still run an arbitrary command as the root via the guest agent socket. > This is not a vulnerability, as the user can already run an arbitrary command with `sudo` by design. ### Workarounds - On macOS hosts, use `vz` driver instead of `qemu` (`limactl create --vm-type=vz`. Default since v1.0.) - Or, disable the guest agent (`limactl create --plain`)

CVE-2026-53657 Affected Lima Versions

1 component(s)
Fixed Versions:
2.1.3
Product / Package Ecosystem Affected Versions Fixed Version
github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2
golang/github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2
Go
< 2.1.3
2.1.3

References

GitHub Advisory / Wiki ADVISORY
https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/security/advisories/GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2
NVD — CVE-2026-53657 NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53657
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/commit/8a45892378d22f40505c31a38f786a07701b6d50
Security Fix Commit FIX COMMIT
https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/commit/b08cae8a670cf916d5da11c48a6de76dabd89678
Lima Source Repository REPOSITORY
https://github.com/lima-vm/lima
Lima Release RELEASE
https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/releases/tag/v2.1.3

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-53657?
CVE-2026-53657 is a security vulnerability in Lima involving An arbitrary user in a QEMU VM could gain the root privilege in the VM via the guest agent socket under CWE-668: Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere.
Which Lima versions are affected?
Affected versions include releases prior to 2.1.3 across affected packages: github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2.
What version fixes CVE-2026-53657?
Upgrading to 2.1.3 (or the latest patched release for your respective branch) resolves the vulnerability.
Is github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 affected?
Yes, github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2 is affected in releases prior to 2.1.3. Upgrade your dependency to 2.1.3 or later.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-53657?
CVE-2026-53657 has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 8.2 (HIGH) with vector string CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H.
What CWE is associated with CVE-2026-53657?
CVE-2026-53657 is classified under CWE-668: Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere (The product exposes a resource to the wrong control sphere, providing unintended actors with inappropriate access to the resource.).
How can I check Go dependencies for CVE-2026-53657?
Run the dependency tree command: 'inspect dependencies for github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2'. This command lists direct and transitive dependencies in your build configuration so you can verify if a vulnerable version is resolved.
Machine-readable OSV JSON OSV v1.5 Schema
Normalized schema output
View Raw JSON 
{
  "schema_version" : "1.4.0",
  "id" : "GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2",
  "modified" : "2026-08-14T19:24:33Z",
  "published" : "2026-08-14T19:24:33Z",
  "aliases" : [ "CVE-2026-53657" ],
  "summary" : "Lima: An arbitrary user in a QEMU VM could gain the root privilege in the VM via the guest agent socket",
  "details" : "### Impact\nOn an instance of Lima running with `qemu` driver, an arbitrary user in the VM could access `/run/lima-guestagent.sock` when the guest agent is enabled.\n\nThis could result in running an arbitrary command with the root privileges in the VM (**not on the host**), as `lima-guestagent.sock` provides the tunneling service for an arbitrary address, including a Unix socket address for privileged daemons like D-Bus.\n\nThis vulnerability is not exploitable on `vz` driver, as the guest agent uses vsocks instead of Unix sockets.\n\n### Patches\nPatched in Lima v2.1.3 (8a45892378d22f40505c31a38f786a07701b6d50)\n\n> [!NOTE]\n> The default user account in the VM can still run an arbitrary command as the root via the guest agent socket.\n> This is not a vulnerability, as the user can already run an arbitrary command with `sudo` by design.\n\n### Workarounds\n- On macOS hosts, use `vz` driver instead of `qemu` (`limactl create --vm-type=vz`. Default since v1.0.)\n- Or, disable the guest agent (`limactl create --plain`)",
  "severity" : [ {
    "type" : "CVSS_V3",
    "score" : "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H"
  } ],
  "affected" : [ {
    "package" : {
      "ecosystem" : "Go",
      "name" : "github.com/lima-vm/lima/v2"
    },
    "ranges" : [ {
      "type" : "ECOSYSTEM",
      "events" : [ {
        "introduced" : "0"
      }, {
        "fixed" : "2.1.3"
      } ]
    } ],
    "database_specific" : {
      "last_known_affected_version_range" : "<= 2.1.2"
    }
  } ],
  "references" : [ {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/security/advisories/GHSA-2j9v-p4xj-cjw2"
  }, {
    "type" : "ADVISORY",
    "url" : "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-53657"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/commit/8a45892378d22f40505c31a38f786a07701b6d50"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/commit/b08cae8a670cf916d5da11c48a6de76dabd89678"
  }, {
    "type" : "PACKAGE",
    "url" : "https://github.com/lima-vm/lima"
  }, {
    "type" : "WEB",
    "url" : "https://github.com/lima-vm/lima/releases/tag/v2.1.3"
  } ],
  "database_specific" : {
    "cwe_ids" : [ "CWE-276", "CWE-668" ],
    "severity" : "HIGH",
    "github_reviewed" : true,
    "github_reviewed_at" : "2026-08-14T19:24:33Z",
    "nvd_published_at" : "2026-07-10T17:16:57Z"
  }
}