Medium severity · published May 6, 2026
CVE-2026-40197
Incus nil-pointer dereference in custom volume import allows denial of service
6.5
CVSS
0.4%
EPSS
No
On KEV
Description
Incus is a system container and virtual machine manager. In versions before 7.0.0, missing validation logic in the storage volume import logic allows an authenticated user with access to the storage volume feature to cause the Incus daemon to crash. The custom volume backup import subsystem contains a nil-pointer dereference vulnerability during import operations. In the snapshot import loop, the daemon iterates over entries from `srcBackup.Config.VolumeSnapshots` and assumes that each slice element is initialized, then dereferences fields such as `Name`, `Config`, `Description`, `CreatedAt`, and `ExpiresAt` without first validating the element itself. Because the yaml unmarshaler accepts explicit null array elements from an attacker-controlled index.yaml and converts them into nil pointers inside the slice, an attacker can supply a backup archive containing a null entry in the volume_snapshots array. This causes a nil-pointer dereference during custom volume import and terminates the daemon, resulting in denial of service on the affected node. Repeated use of this issue can be used to keep Incus offline, causing a denial of service. This issue is fixed in version 7.0.0.
CVSS vector
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High
Scope
Unchanged
Exploitation
Is it being used?
Exploit prediction (EPSS)0.4% · higher than 32% of CVEs
Exploited in the wildNo evidence yet
CISA KEVNot listed
Ransomware campaign useNot known
Affected products
Which versions
IN
incus · lxc
< 7.0.0 · source: vendor, NVD
References
NVD
https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-40197
CVE.org
https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-40197
Exploit
https://github.com/lxc/incus/security/advisories/GHSA-r7w7-mmxr-47r9
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