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Incorrect Default PermissionsWeakness · CWE-276

CVE-2026-53657

HIGH · 8.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-07-10
Patch available
A vendor patch is available. No clean upgrade release — apply the published patch.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Zero-click Patch available 6 weeks old

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Lima launches Linux virtual machines, typically on macOS, for running containerd. Prior to 2.1.3, on an instance of Lima running with the qemu driver, an arbitrary user in the VM could access /run/lima-guestagent.sock when the guest agent is enabled, which could result in running arbitrary commands with root privileges in the VM because the guest agent socket provides tunneling for arbitrary addresses, including Unix socket addresses for privileged daemons like D-Bus. This issue is fixed in version 2.1.3.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · high confidence

In Lima versions prior to 2.1.3 running with the qemu driver, the guest agent socket (/run/lima-guestagent.sock) was accessible to any user in the VM rather than restricted to privileged users. This socket provides tunneling capabilities that can reach Unix socket addresses for privileged system daemons like D-Bus, allowing an unprivileged user to execute commands with root privileges.

MitigationUpgrade Lima to version 2.1.3 or later. If immediate upgrade is not possible, consider disabling the guest agent until the patch can be applied.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
High
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check Lima installed version
    Run 'limactl --version' or 'lima --version' to get the installed Lima version number
    Affected if Version is lower than 2.1.3
  2. Identify the Lima driver in use
    Inspect the Lima configuration file (typically ~/.lima/<instance>/lima.yaml) or run 'limactl list' and check the driver field - look for 'qemu'
    Affected if The driver is set to qemu (other drivers like docker are not affected)
  3. Check if guest agent is enabled
    Look for 'guestAgent' or 'agent' configuration in the Lima instance YAML file under the qemu section; also check if the socket file exists at /run/lima-guestagent.sock inside the VM
    Affected if Guest agent is enabled and the socket file exists at /run/lima-guestagent.sock
  4. Verify socket permissions inside the VM
    From within the Lima VM, run 'ls -la /run/lima-guestagent.sock' to check file permissions
    Affected if Socket exists and shows world-readable/writable permissions (e.g., srwxrwxrwx or similar with 'other' permissions set)
  5. Check D-Bus socket accessibility
    From inside the VM as an unprivileged user, attempt to access /run/dbus/system_bus_socket or similar D-Bus sockets through the lima-guestagent socket if tooling is available
    Affected if Unprivileged user can reach privileged daemon sockets through the guest agent tunnel

You are affected if running Lima version below 2.1.3 with the qemu driver and the guest agent is enabled, allowing unprivileged VM users to access the world-accessible guest agent socket.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Patch available Apply the vendor patch
Vendor patch github.com →
Interim mitigation

Upgrade Lima to version 2.1.3 or later. If immediate upgrade is not possible, consider disabling the guest agent until the patch can be applied.

Recommended fix High confidence

Lima version 2.1.3 or later

  1. Check the current Lima version by running `limactl --version`
  2. Upgrade Lima to version 2.1.3 or later. On macOS with Homebrew, run: `brew upgrade lima`
  3. For other installation methods, follow the official Lima installation guide for your platform
  4. Verify the upgrade was successful by running `limactl --version` again
  5. Ensure you are running version 2.1.3 or higher which contains the fix for the socket permission vulnerability

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
7.0 hours of engineering $1,240
Get the patch applied

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $1,984.

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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2026-53657 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data