CAPEC-480
Escaping Virtualization
An adversary gains access to an application, service, or device with the privileges of an authorized or privileged user by escaping the confines of a virtualized environment. The adversary is then able to access resources or execute unauthorized code within the host environment, generally with the privileges of the user running the virtualized process. Successfully executing an attack of this type is often the first step in executing more complex attacks.
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Explain the attack pattern CAPEC-480: Escaping Virtualization: how it unfolds, what it needs and how to prevent and detect it in my systems. Use https://capec.mitre.org/data/definitions/480.html and https://cve.bz/cve/capec/480?via=ask-ai-copy, which lists recent CVEs with the weaknesses it exploits. Cite the sources.Opens a third-party assistant; its answer is its own, not cve.bz's. The prompt holds only this attack pattern's id and public links.
How the attack unfolds
Explore
The attacker looks for a way in.
[Probing] The adversary probes the target application, service, or device to find a possible weakness that would allow escaping the virtualized environment.
1 technique
- Probing applications, services, or devices for virtualization weaknesses.
Experiment
They probe what they found.
[Verify the exploitable security weaknesses] Using the found weakness, the adversary attempts to escape the virtualized environment.
1 technique
- Using an application weakness to escape a virtualized environment
Exploit
They carry out the attack.
[Execute more complex attacks] Once outside of the virtualized environment, the adversary attempts to perform other more complex attacks such as accessing system resources or executing unauthorized code within the host environment.
1 technique
- Executing complex attacks when given higher permissions by escaping a virtualized environment
Consequences
| Impact | Affects | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Bypass Protection Mechanism | Access Control, Authorization | |
| Execute Unauthorized Commands | Authorization | Run Arbitrary Code |
| Gain Privileges | Accountability, Authentication, Authorization, Non-Repudiation |
Mitigations
Ensure virtualization software is current and up-to-date.
Abide by the least privilege principle to avoid assigning users more privileges than necessary.
Weaknesses it exploits
- CWE-693 Protection Mechanism Failure
Recent CVEs with these weaknesses
- 6.5CVE-2026-18668
IBM Sterling File Gateway 6.2.1.0 through 6.2.1.2_1 and 6.2.2.0 - 6.2.2.1_1 could allow a remote attacker to perform protocol downgrade attacks due to a security misconfiguration.
- 3.6CVE-2026-102618
IBM i 7.6, 7.5, 7.4, and 7.3 could allow an authenticated user to indirectly disable system auditing, which they otherwise don't have authority to disable.
- 6.9CVE-2026-123556
ZcashFoundation Zebra from 4.5.0 before 7.0.0 contains a protection mechanism failure that bans honest peers by scoring mempool lock-time rejections at the ban threshold. Attackers can broadcast transactions locked until the current height…
- 5.5CVE-2025-55002
JupyterLab Desktop is the cross-platform desktop application for JupyterLab. Prior to 4.6.2-1, JupyterLab Desktop for macOS shipped with Electron's RunAsNode fuse enabled, allowing ELECTRON_RUN_AS_NODE to execute arbitrary Node.js code in …
- 5.5CVE-2025-54991
JupyterLab Desktop is the cross-platform desktop application for JupyterLab. Prior to 4.6.2-1, JupyterLab Desktop for macOS declared the com.apple.security.cs.allow-dyld-environment-variables entitlement, allowing the dynamic linker to hon…
- 8.2CVE-2026-119170
There was a regression in how FIPS algorithms were enforced for the hashlib module. Only users that are using OpenSSL in FIPS mode are affected. Only Python 3.14.10 is affected, all other Python versions are unaffected.
- –CVE-2026-83494
A flaw was found in the training-operator. An incorrect object casting in the PyTorchJob ValidateUpdate webhook allows users to bypass an immutability check. This vulnerability could enable users to detach a queued job from its quota manag…
- –CVE-2026-103863
Improper neutralization of input during web page generation ('cross-site scripting') vulnerability in Apache Sling Engine. Content-Type, charset, and redirect changes from an included component evade the protectheaders / checkcontenttype …
The newest records naming one of them. Each weakness's page lists them all.
Related attack patterns
- Part of
- CAPEC-115 Authentication Bypass
- More specific patterns
- CAPEC-237 Escaping a Sandbox by Calling Code in Another Language
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