Podman: Malformed Image can trick podman run into leaking host environment variables into the container

Summary

CVECVE-2026-57231
StatePUBLISHED
AssignerGitHub_M
Source PriorityCVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback
Published2026-06-26 17:16:34 UTC
Updated2026-06-26 18:13:25 UTC
DescriptionPodman is a tool for managing OCI containers and pods. From 1.8.1 until 5.8.4, a container image that contains a environment variable with just a key and no value can trick podman into passing that variable from the host into the container. This is made worse by the fact that using an asterisk (*) will cause podman to pass all host variables into the container. So essentially a malicious image can exfiltrate all podman environment variables that are set in the session from where the container is launched. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.8.4 and 6.0.0.

Risk And Classification

Primary CVSS: v3.1 7.5 HIGH from [email protected]

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

Problem Types: CWE-200 | CWE-668 | CWE-200 CWE-200: Exposure of Sensitive Information to an Unauthorized Actor | CWE-668 CWE-668: Exposure of Resource to Wrong Sphere


VersionSourceTypeScoreSeverityVector
3.1[email protected]Secondary7.5HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N
3.1CNADECLARED7.5HIGHCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N

CVSS v3.1 Breakdown

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

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

Vendor Declared Affected Products

SourceVendorProductVersionPlatforms
CNA Podman-container-tools Podman affected >= 1.8.1, < 5.8.4 Not specified

References

ReferenceSourceLinkTags
github.com/podman-container-tools/podman/security/advisories/GHSA-4hq8-g... [email protected] github.com
github.com/podman-container-tools/podman/commit/6c431b73dbf8e4b20b778644... [email protected] github.com
CVE Program record CVE.ORG www.cve.org canonical
NVD vulnerability detail NVD nvd.nist.gov canonical, analysis
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