CVE Catalog

CVE-2025-7195

MediumCVSS 6.4
Published: Updated: Translated: NVD NIST

Exploitation Probability (EPSS)

Low risk
0.22%

13th percentile - higher than 13% of all known CVEs

Summary

Operator-SDK before version 0.15.2 includes a user_setup script that sets /etc/passwd permissions to 664 (group-writable) with root group ownership (gid=0) during build time. An attacker with access to the container, even as a non-root user, can leverage membership in the root group to modify /etc/passwd and add a user with arbitrary UID, including 0, leading to full root privileges within the container.

Risk Assessment

The organization is at risk of privilege escalation within containers built with the vulnerable Operator-SDK version, potentially allowing an attacker to gain full control of the container and further compromise the infrastructure.

Recommendation

Immediately upgrade Operator-SDK to version 0.15.2 or later, and remove or fix the user_setup script in existing container images to ensure /etc/passwd is not group-writable.

Related vulnerabilities

Original NVD description (English source)

Early versions of Operator-SDK provided an insecure method to allow operator containers to run in environments that used a random UID. Operator-SDK before 0.15.2 provided a script, user_setup, which modifies the permissions of the /etc/passwd file to 664 during build time. Developers who used Operator-SDK before 0.15.2 to scaffold their operator may still be impacted by this if the insecure user_setup script is still being used to build new container images. In affected images, the /etc/passwd file is created during build time with group-writable permissions and a group ownership of root (gid=0). An attacker who can execute commands within an affected container, even as a non-root user, may be able to 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.

Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS