NTLM Coercion via Symlink VolumeMount in Windows Kubelet
CVE-2026-76654 Published on October 26, 2026
Subpath symlinking on Windows nodes permits NTLM coercion
An NTLM coercion vulnerability exists on Windows nodes when the subPath supplied in a pod's volumeMounts is set to a symbolic link that points to an attacker-controlled network share. When a kubelet resolves symlinks, it does not reject a target that resolves to a UNC path. As a result, the kubelet will transparently attempt to authenticate to the share using NTLM. This allows an attacker to obtain the NetNTLMv2 hash of the account under which the kubelet is running. An attacker could then attempt to crack the hash to retrieve the corresponding password or relay it to impersonate the node, if the node is domain-joined.
Vulnerability Analysis
CVE-2026-76654 is exploitable with network access, and requires user privileges. This vulnerability is consided to have a high level of attack complexity. The potential impact of an exploit of this vulnerability is considered to have a high impact on confidentiality, with no impact on integrity and availability.
Weakness Type
What is an insecure temporary file Vulnerability?
The software attempts to access a file based on the filename, but it does not properly prevent that filename from identifying a link or shortcut that resolves to an unintended resource.
CVE-2026-76654 has been classified to as an insecure temporary file vulnerability or weakness.
Products Associated with CVE-2026-76654
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Affected Versions
Kubernetes:- Version v1.34.0, <= v1.34.11 is affected.
- Version v1.35.0, <= v1.35.8 is affected.
- Version v1.36.0, <= v1.36.4 is affected.
- Version v1.37.0, <= v1.37.0 is affected.