CVE-2026-53488

Impact

A bug was found in containerd where the CRI plugin propagates labels from an image config (LABEL instruction in Dockerfile) to a container without validation. This may result in executing an arbitrary command on the host, via a plugin that consumes container labels for some operations.

Patches

This bug has been fixed in the following containerd versions:

• 2.3.2
• 2.2.5
• 2.1.9
• 2.0.10
• 1.7.33

Users should update to these versions to resolve the issue.

Workarounds

Ensure that only trusted images are used.

Credits

The containerd project would like to thank Anthropic Research, in collaboration with Claude, the GKE Security Team using Gemini, and Robert Prast (@robertprast) for independently discovering and responsibly disclosing this issue in accordance with the containerd security policy.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

• Open an issue in containerd
• Email us at security@containerd.io

To report a security issue in containerd:

• Report a new vulnerability
• Email us at security@containerd.io