Description
A flaw was found in the interaction between systemd-gpt-auto-generator and
confidential computing guest VM images in OpenShift Sandboxed Containers
(confidential peer pods). systemd-gpt-auto-generator automatically discovers
and mounts GPT partitions by type GUID at boot with no user confirmation. In
the confidential computing threat model, where the host/hypervisor is the
adversary, a malicious host can inject partitions into the guest's virtual
disk. Most critically, injecting a swap partition causes the guest kernel to
page out TEE-encrypted memory to a host-controlled block device, breaking the
confidentiality guarantee of the hardware TEE (AMD SEV-SNP, Intel TDX).
The PodVM images use a GPT-partitioned disk with dm-verity on the root
partition. However, the roothash= kernel parameter only disables root
auto-discovery — non-root partitions (swap, /home, /var, /srv, /var/tmp) are
still auto-discovered and mounted. The generator is shipped unmasked in the
RHEL systemd-udev subpackage, and no kernel command line parameter in the
measured UKI addon disables it. Additionally, the PodVM measurement script
captures PCRs 3, 9, 11, and 12, but not PCR 5 (GPT partition table), so
partition table modifications are not detected by remote attestation.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | — | — |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 | — | — |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 | — | — |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | — | — |
| Red Hat | Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | — | — |
| Red Hat | Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | — | — |
| Red Hat | Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5 | — | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Ubuntu
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu 26.10 | systemd | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 26.04 LTS | systemd | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 24.04 LTS | systemd | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu 22.04 LTS | systemd | No fix yet | — |
Show 4 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ubuntu Pro 20.04 LTS | systemd | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS | systemd | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS | systemd | No fix yet | — |
| Ubuntu Pro 14.04 LTS | systemd | No fix yet | — |
References
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-121876 vdb-entry
- RHBZ#2558210 issue-tracking