Quick answers
- Is CVE-2026-44849 exploited in the wild?
- No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-44849 being exploited in the wild.
- How severe is CVE-2026-44849?
- High severity, with a CVSS score of 8.8, published 28 May 2026.
- Which products and versions are affected?
- github.com/portainer/portainer (Go) SEMVER:introduced=0, SEMVER:introduced=2.33.0,fixed=2.33.8; Portainer >= 2.33.0, < 2.33.8; >= 2.39.0, < 2.39.2; >= 2.40.0, < 2.41.0; Portainer Community Edition 2.33.0 to < 2.33.8, 2.39.0 to < 2.39.2, 2.40.0 to < 2.41.0.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2026-44849?
- Yes. github.com/portainer/portainer (Go): upgrade to 2.33.8 or later. Junglewise finds every place you run it, drafts the upgrade and applies it once you approve.
- How is CVE-2026-44849 attacked?
- It is attacked over the network, in a network appliance.
- Am I affected by CVE-2026-44849?
- Check whether you run github.com/portainer/portainer (Go), Portainer or Portainer Community Edition at an affected version. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.
How to fix
- github.com/portainer/portainer (Go): upgrade to 2.33.8 or later
go get github.com/portainer/portainer@v2.33.8
Technical details
Portainer fails to validate several EndpointSecuritySettings (including capabilities, sysctls, and security options) when processing Docker Swarm service requests. Specifically, the 'POST /services/create' endpoint uses a partial Go struct that ignores security-sensitive fields, while 'POST /services/{id}/update' lacks security setting validation entirely. Additionally, a flaw in bind-mount detection allows users to bypass restrictions by using volume driver options that emulate bind mounts. An authenticated user with standard access to a Swarm endpoint can exploit these omissions to deploy containers with elevated privileges (e.g., CAP_SYS_ADMIN) or mount the host root filesystem, effectively gaining root access to the Swarm manager. Patches are available in versions 2.33.8, 2.39.2, and 2.41.0.
Affected products
- Portainer Portainer >= 2.33.0, < 2.33.8; >= 2.39.0, < 2.39.2; >= 2.40.0, < 2.41.0
Identifiers
- CVE-2026-44849
- GHSA-5fxq-qcf3-244w
- GO-2026-5143
Timeline
- 2026-03-12: disclosed: Private disclosure of volume-driver local-bind variant by route2shell
- 2026-04-05: disclosed: Disclosure of Swarm service bypass by JohannesLks
- 2026-04-18: patched: Fix merged to develop branch
- 2026-04-29: patched: Version 2.41.0 released
- 2026-05-07: patched: LTS versions 2.39.2 and 2.33.8 released
- 2026-05-14: advisory: Public advisory published