CVE-2025-4437
Cri-o: large /etc/passwd file may lead to denial of service
- State
- Published
- Severity
- 5.7 Medium
- Published
- Aug 20, 2025
- Updated
- Sep 1, 2026
- Reserved
- May 8, 2025
Description
There'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.
Scores
| CVSS | Score | Vector | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | 5.7 Medium | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H | redhat |
Weaknesses
- CWE-770 Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling
Affected Products
| Product | Versions |
|---|---|
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4Red Hat | |
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4Red Hat | |
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4Red Hat |
References
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-4437vdb-entry
- RHBZ#2375084issue-tracking
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