CVE Intelligence
Medium Cryptography exploit reference

CVE-2026-40243 — Incus OVN TLS verification accepts peer-supplied roots and permits endpoint impersonation

Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. In versions before 7.0.0, broken TLS validation logic in the OVN database connection logic can allow connections to an attacker's OVN database. The OVN client implementations disable Go standard TLS server verification and replace it with custom peer-certificate verification logic. That replacement verifier does not anchor trust in the configured CA certificate. Instead, it constructs the verification root set from certificates supplied by the peer during the handshake, so the configured CA is parsed but not used as the trust anchor for the final verification decision. In OVN-enabled deployments that use these SSL database connection paths, an attacker able to impersonate or intercept the OVN endpoint on the management network can present a rogue self-signed certificate chain, and Incus will accept this certificate as valid. This issue defeats the intended CA-based trust model for OVN database connections and permits endpoint impersonation by an active attacker in a suitable network position. This issue is fixed in version 7.0.0.

Published May 6, 2026 · Updated Oct 13, 2026 · Sources: NIST National Vulnerability Database, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP · CNA: GitHub_M

Who exploits it and how urgent it is

A 0–100 score combining confirmed exploitation, ransomware and APT use, public exploits, EPSS and severity.

No exploitation signal in the sources consulted so far.
How the score was calculated
  • EPSS 0.2% (30-day exploitation probability)+2
  • Technical severity (medium)+3
  • CISA SSVC: exploitation "poc"+5

The score orders the patch queue; it does not replace your asset context (internet exposure, criticality, compensating controls).

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the sources call it.

Exploitation
Not confirmed
Not in CISA KEV — an absence of record, not proof it is unexploited.
EPSS FIRST
0.22%
ahead of 12% of scored CVEs · Oct 14, 2026
Affects
Linuxcontainers
Incus
CVSS base
4.8
Medium · 3 source(s)

CISA SSVC assessment CISA

Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses (SSVC 2.0.3). A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.

Exploitation
Proof of concept
none · proof-of-concept · active
Automatable
No
can an attacker script the kill-chain steps
Technical impact
Partial
partial · total control of the vulnerable component

Remediation

Fixes and mitigations documented by the sources — linked to the original advisory.

No fix documented by the sources we poll. That does not mean none exists: check the vendor advisory.

First 24 hours

Ordered from the record’s own fields — exposure first, because you cannot patch what you have not found. A rule-generated starting point.

  1. Identify exposed assets running the affected vendor/product/version combinations (Linuxcontainers Incus, Lxc Incus).
  2. The attack is network-based and needs no privileges: restrict exposure (ACLs, VPN, WAF) until patched.
  3. No fix documented in the sources: reduce exposure and monitor the vendor advisory.
  4. Search available logs for exploit probes matching the vulnerability class (cryptography), errors and authentication anomalies.

Affected scope

Vendor, product and versions as the sources word them.

VendorProductVersionsStatusSource
Linuxcontainers Incus < 7.0.0 Vulnerable NIST National Vulnerability Database
Lxc Incus version < 7.0.0 Vulnerable CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP

Attack characteristics

The CVSS vector, decoded. It describes the attack, not your exposure to it.

Attack vector
Network
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
Low
Integrity
Low
Availability
None

Every base score collected

Sources score independently and may disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.

ScoreVersionSeverityExpl.ImpactScored by
2.3 CVSS 4.0 Low — — security-advisories@github.com via NIST National Vulnerability Database
2.3 CVSS 4.0 Low — — GitHub_M via CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
4.8 CVSS 3.1 Medium 2.2 2.5 nvd@nist.gov via NIST National Vulnerability Database
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:N (score shown at the top: nvd@nist.gov)

Weakness MITRE

Weakness class according to MITRE’s CWE catalog.

CWE-295 · Improper Certificate Validation

Other CVEs with this weakness →

EPSS over time FIRST

Oct 13, 2026 → Oct 14, 2026 · 2 reading(s) · max 0.22%

Detection

Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not tested rules.

  • Prioritize edge telemetry for the network-reachable component (proxy, WAF, IDS/IPS).
  • Check TLS negotiations and unexpected certificates in the component’s traffic.
web/proxy/WAF logsnetwork IDS/IPS

Timeline

What happened to this CVE, newest first.

  • 2026
  • Affected products added · lxc/incus
    Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • SSVC assessment updated
    Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • Record published
    Oct 13, 2026
  • CVSS changed · 4.8
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Source status changed · → Analyzed
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Record created in this database
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • CVE published
    May 6, 2026 · GitHub_M

Source activity

Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.

  • 1× Official description updated · Oct 13, 2026 – Oct 13, 2026

References

5 on the record

Elsewhere on this site

Linuxcontainers
every CVE for this vendor
Cryptography
same class
CWE-295
other pages naming this weakness

Related CVEs (same products)

  • CVE-2026-63125 Incus vulnerable to root RCE via image backup.yaml symlink Aug 21, 2026
  • CVE-2026-62867 Incus has an argument injection in storage volume block.create_options that leads to arbitrary command execution Aug 21, 2026
  • CVE-2026-62940 Incus has a project restriction bypass via instance migration config override Aug 21, 2026
  • CVE-2026-62941 Incus: Cross-project instance copy bypasses target project restrictions via TOCTOU in config merge Aug 21, 2026
  • CVE-2026-63343 Arbitrary File Read/Write: metadata.yaml symlink in image allows host filesystem access as root Aug 21, 2026
  • CVE-2026-62313 Incus: Project restriction `restricted.containers.privilege=isolated` bypassable by omitting `security.idmap.isolated` Aug 21, 2026

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

  • No fixed version, patch or mitigation documented.
  • No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
  • No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
  • No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.

Answered from this record

Text assembled only from the fields above — no additional claims.

What should defenders know first?

CVE-2026-40243 is "Incus OVN TLS verification accepts peer-supplied roots and permits endpoint impersonation", rated Medium. It affects Incus (Linuxcontainers); versions are in the scope table. It is not in CISA KEV, which does not rule out exploitation. CVSS 4.8 describes technical severity. EPSS 0.22% estimates the probability of exploitation in 30 days; neither replaces your asset context. First verify whether exposed or business-critical assets run the affected versions, apply vendor fixes or mitigations, and preserve logs for review.

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