critical

CVE-2026-44881

Portainer Has an Arbitrary File Read via Git Symlink Injection in Stack Auto-Update

Published 28 May 2026Modified 21 Jul 2026CWE 59, 200

In the Trivy database since at least 24 Oct 2026, 07:11 UTCWhen it arrived before that build is not recorded.

Severity by source

NVD9.9CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

GHSA8.5CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H

Trivy's own label is CRITICAL. Rated critical by NVD. Rated lower by GHSA (high).

Description

Portainer Community Edition is a lightweight service delivery platform for containerized applications that can be used to manage Docker, Swarm, Kubernetes and ACI environments. From 2.33.0 to before 2.33.8, 2.39.2, and 2.41.0, Portainer supports deploying stacks from Git repositories. When a Git-backed stack is created or updated, Portainer clones the repository using go-git v5, which translates Git blob entries with mode 0o120000 (symlink) into real OS symlinks on the host filesystem via os.Symlink. The only entry blocked from becoming a symlink is .gitmodules; every other path is created as a symlink without validation. Portainer's GET /api/stacks/{id}/file endpoint then reads the stack entry point with os.ReadFile, which follows OS symlinks transparently. A repository containing docker-compose.yml as a symlink to an arbitrary filesystem path causes the symlink target's contents to be returned verbatim in the HTTP response. Any authenticated user with rights to create or update a Git-backed stack — the default configuration in Portainer CE — can read arbitrary files accessible to the Portainer process. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.33.8, 2.39.2, and 2.41.0.

Affected packages and fixed versions

Source	Package	Fixed in
go::GitHub Security Advisory Go	github.com/portainer/portainer	2.33.8, 2.39.2, 2.41.0

References

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FindsEvery admitted image is rescanned every 24 hours by default (scan.rescanInterval). When Trivy rates this vulnerability critical for the image's package source, it appears in the image's findings by name. Findings without a fix are left out unless includeUnfixed is on.

Tells youA critical_finding event goes to the channels subscribed to it: e-mail, Slack, Teams, a webhook, Jira, GitLab or GitHub.

RefusesWith a policy that blocks critical findings, a pod with this image is refused at admission, a rollback to it included. Pods already running are not evicted.

RecordsEach decision is recorded with the policy that ran and its hash, then sealed under a signed checkpoint.

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