Cri-o: large /etc/passwd file may lead to denial of service

MITRE NVD CVE.ORG JSON API

Summary

CVECVE-2025-4437
StatePUBLISHED
Assignerredhat
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2025-08-20 13:15:28 UTC
Updated2026-09-26 00:10:00 UTC
DescriptionThere's a vulnerability in the CRI-O application where when container is launched with securityContext.runAsUser specifying a non-existent user, CRI-O attempts to create the user, reading the container's entire /etc/passwd file into memory. If this file is excessively large, it can cause the a high memory consumption leading applications to be killed due to out-of-memory. As a result a denial-of-service can be achieved, possibly disrupting other pods and services running in the same host.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 5.7 MEDIUM from [email protected]

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

EPSS: 0.002460000 probability, percentile 0.142400000 (date 2026-09-27)

Problem Types: CWE-770 | CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary5.7MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H
3.1CNACVSS5.7MEDIUMCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 Not specified Not specified
CNA Red Hat Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 Not specified Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-4437 [email protected] access.redhat.com
bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi [email protected] bugzilla.redhat.com
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis

Vendor Comments And Credit

Discovery Credit

CNA: Red Hat would like to thank Dongha Kim (BoB Project Team, Pirates) for reporting this issue. (en)

Additional Advisory Data

SourceTimeEvent
CNA2025-06-26T22:09:58.217ZReported to Red Hat.
CNA2025-06-26T00:00:00.000ZMade public.

Workarounds

CNA: As for now there's no available mitigation for this flaw.

© CVE.report 2026

Use of this information constitutes acceptance for use in an AS IS condition. There are NO warranties, implied or otherwise, with regard to this information or its use. Any use of this information is at the user's risk. It is the responsibility of user to evaluate the accuracy, completeness or usefulness of any information, opinion, advice or other content. EACH USER WILL BE SOLELY RESPONSIBLE FOR ANY consequences of his or her direct or indirect use of this web site. ALL WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND ARE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMED. This site will NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT or any other kind of loss.

CVE, CWE, and OVAL are registred trademarks of The MITRE Corporation and the authoritative source of CVE content is MITRE's CVE web site. This site includes MITRE data granted under the following license.

Free CVE JSON API cve.report/api

CVE.report and Source URL Uptime Status status.cve.report