CVE-2025-7195
Operator-sdk: privilege escalation due to incorrect permissions of /etc/passwd
At a glance
- Source
- NVD
- EPSS
- EPSS 0.24 % · percentile 15 ()
- State
- PUBLISHED
- Published
- Updated
- Assigner
- redhat
- NVD status
- Deferred
Description
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.
Weaknesses (CWE)
- CWE-276 — Incorrect Default Permissions
References
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHEA-2025:23406
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHEA-2025:23478
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHEA-2026:0129
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:19332
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:19335
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:19958
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:19961
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:21368
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:21885
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22415
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22416
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22418
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22420
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22683
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:22684
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:23528
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:23529
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:23542
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:0627
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:0718
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:0722
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:0737
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:2572
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:5633
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-7195
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2376300
Scores
| Version | Score | Vector | Scored by |
|---|---|---|---|
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM 6.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H | redhat |
| CVSS 3.1 | MEDIUM 6.4 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H | NVD · secalert@redhat.com (Secondary) |
Advisories
- GHSA-856v-8qm2-9wjv — operator-sdk: privilege escalation due to incorrect permissions of /etc/passwd
- GO-2025-3852 — operator-sdk: privilege escalation due to incorrect permissions of /etc/passwd in github.com/operator-framework/operator-sdk
European references
- ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2025-23951
- GCVE · GCVE-0-2025-7195
Affected products
Sources
| Source | Licence |
|---|---|
| CVE List (CVEProject cvelistV5) | CVE Program Terms of Use |
| EPSS (FIRST.org) | FIRST — attribution requested |
| ENISA EUVD | ENISA — reproduction authorised, source acknowledged |
| NVD (NIST) via fkie-cad/nvd-json-data-feeds | Public domain — this product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD |