CVE-2025-57851

Mce: privilege escalation via excessive /etc/passwd permissions

State
Published
Severity
6.4 Medium
Published
Apr 8, 2026
Updated
May 1, 2026
Reserved
Aug 21, 2025

Read the record on cve.org

Description

A container privilege escalation flaw was found in certain Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes images. This issue stems from the /etc/passwd file being created with group-writable permissions during build time. In certain conditions, an attacker who can execute commands within an affected container, even as a non-root user, can leverage their membership in the root group to modify the /etc/passwd file. This could allow the attacker to add a new user with any arbitrary UID, including UID 0, leading to full root privileges within the container.

Scores

CVSSScoreVectorSource
3.16.4 MediumCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:Hredhat

Weaknesses

  • CWE-276 Incorrect Default Permissions

Affected Products

ProductVersions
Multicluster Engine for KubernetesRed Hat
    Multicluster Engine for KubernetesRed Hat
      Multicluster Engine for KubernetesRed Hat

        References

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