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Fencer Vulns
medium 5.3

CVE-2023-25173 json

containerd supplementary groups are not set up properly

published 2023-02-16 3 y ago modified 2026-09-10 1 mo ago also GHSA-hmfx-3pcx-653p , GO-2023-1574 , EUVD-2023-0722

cvss
5.3
version 3.1, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
0.5%
EPSS 0.5% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 45%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

containerd is an open source container runtime. A bug was found in containerd prior to versions 1.6.18 and 1.5.18 where supplementary groups are not set up properly inside a container. If an attacker has direct access to a container and manipulates their supplementary group access, they may be able to use supplementary group access to bypass primary group restrictions in some cases, potentially gaining access to sensitive information or gaining the ability to execute code in that container. Downstream applications that use the containerd client library may be affected as well.

This bug has been fixed in containerd v1.6.18 and v.1.5.18. Users should update to these versions and recreate containers to resolve this issue. Users who rely on a downstream application that uses containerd's client library should check that application for a separate advisory and instructions. As a workaround, ensure that the `"USER $USERNAME"` Dockerfile instruction is not used. Instead, set the container entrypoint to a value similar to `ENTRYPOINT ["su", "-", "user"]` to allow `su` to properly set up supplementary groups.

Patch / fix

  • go github.com/containerd/containerd 1.5.18, 1.6.18
  • linuxfoundation containerd 1.5.18, 1.6.18
  • containerd Debian 14, Debian 13, Debian 12 1.6.18~ds1-1

debian advisories DEBIAN-CVE-2023-25173

  • containerd Ubuntu 20.04 LTS 1.6.12-0ubuntu1~20.04.3
  • containerd Ubuntu 22.04 LTS 1.6.12-0ubuntu1~22.04.3
  • containerd Ubuntu Pro 16.04 LTS 1.2.6-0ubuntu1~16.04.6+esm4
  • containerd Ubuntu Pro 18.04 LTS 1.6.12-0ubuntu1~18.04.1+esm1

ubuntu advisories UBUNTU-CVE-2023-25173

Ubuntu security data © Canonical Ltd., from https://github.com/canonical/ubuntu-security-notices via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • crit RHEL 8 3.18-4.module+el8.9.0+19090+d2921118
  • criu RHEL 8 3.18-4.module+el8.9.0+19090+d2921118
  • crun RHEL 8 1.8.7-1.module+el8.9.0+19731+94cfa27e
  • runc RHEL 8 1:1.1.9-1.module+el8.9.0+19648+0d5ae0ec
  • udica RHEL 8 0.2.6-20.module+el8.9.0+19244+655f84ee
  • conmon RHEL 8 3:2.1.8-1.module+el8.9.0+19761+326da906
  • podman RHEL 8 3:4.6.1-4.module+el8.9.0+19761+326da906
  • skopeo RHEL 8 2:1.13.3-1.module+el8.9.0+19761+326da906

red hat advisories RHSA-2023:6939RHSA-2023:6473RHSA-2023:6474RHSA-2023:3450

  • helm SLES for SAP 15 SP3, SLES 15 SP3-LTSS, SLE Module for Package Hub 15 SP5 +6 more 3.13.1-150000.1.26.1
  • containerd SLE Module for Containers 15 SP4, SLE Micro 5.4, SLE Micro 5.3 +4 more 1.6.19-150000.87.1
  • containerd SLE Module for Containers 12 1.6.19-16.76.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2023:4124-1SUSE-SU-2023:1827-1SUSE-SU-2023:1826-1

  • helm3 openSUSE Tumbleweed 3.19.2-1.1
  • containerd openSUSE Tumbleweed 1.6.19-1.1
  • helm openSUSE Tumbleweed 3.13.0-2.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2025:15779-1openSUSE-SU-2024:12822-1openSUSE-SU-2024:13295-1

  • crit AlmaLinux 8 3.18-4.module_el8.9.0+3643+9234dc3b
  • criu AlmaLinux 8 3.18-4.module_el8.9.0+3643+9234dc3b
  • crun AlmaLinux 8 1.8.7-1.module_el8.9.0+3643+9234dc3b
  • runc AlmaLinux 8 1:1.1.9-1.module_el8.9.0+3643+9234dc3b
  • udica AlmaLinux 8 0.2.6-20.module_el8.8.0+3615+3543c705
  • conmon AlmaLinux 8 3:2.1.8-1.module_el8.9.0+3643+9234dc3b
  • podman AlmaLinux 8 3:4.6.1-4.module_el8.9.0+3643+9234dc3b
  • skopeo AlmaLinux 8 2:1.13.3-1.module_el8.9.0+3643+9234dc3b

almalinux advisories ALSA-2023:6939ALSA-2023:6473ALSA-2023:6474

  • libslirp Rocky Linux 8 4.4.0-1.module+el8.9.0+1445+07728297

rocky linux advisories RLSA-2023:6939

  • containerd Alpine 3.24, Alpine 3.23, Alpine 3.22 +5 more 1.6.18-r0

alpine advisories ALPINE-CVE-2023-25173

Alpine secdb © Alpine Linux, from https://secdb.alpinelinux.org via OSV; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. CC BY-SA 4.0

  • moby-containerd CBL-Mariner 2.0 1.6.18-2

azure linux advisories AZL-13673

Azure Linux vulnerability data, Copyright (c) Microsoft Corporation, from https://github.com/microsoft/AzureLinuxVulnerabilityData via OSV, under the MIT licence; changed: normalised to fixed package versions per release. MIT

Vendor advisories

What the vendors themselves say about their products: affected, fixed or not affected, and what to do.

red hat product security vex CVE-2023-25173 updated cvss 7.3

containerd: Supplementary groups are not set up properly

  • Red Hat cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift cert-manager/jetstack-cert-manager-rhel9 Red Hat Cryostat 2 cryostat-tech-preview/cryostat-rhel8-operator
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Migration Toolkit for Virtualization migration-toolkit-virtualization/mtv-controller-rhel9
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat OpenShift Developer Tools and Services odo, helm, jenkins-operator-container
    affected: no fix available, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2 openshift-service-mesh/prometheus-rhel8, openshift-service-mesh/istio-rhel8-operator
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat OpenShift Service Mesh 2.1 servicemesh-prometheus
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat 3scale API Management Platform 2 3scale-amp2/3scale-rhel7-operator
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security 3 advanced-cluster-security/rhacs-main-rhel8, advanced-cluster-security/rhacs-scanner-rhel8
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 1.2 helm
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
show 23 more
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 podman, buildah
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 podman, buildah, podman-tests, buildah-tests, podman-docker, podman-remote, +4 more
    affected: no fix available, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.11 atomic-openshift, atomic-openshift-pod, atomic-openshift-node, atomic-openshift-tests, atomic-openshift-master, atomic-openshift-clients, +7 more
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 buildah, openshift, buildah-tests, openshift-clients, openshift-kubelet, openshift-hyperkube, +35 more
    affected: no fix available, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform Assisted Installer 1 rhai-tech-preview/assisted-installer-rhel8, rhai-tech-preview/assisted-installer-agent-rhel8
    affected: no fix planned “Out of support scope”
  • Red Hat Openshift Container Storage 4 ocs4/cephcsi-rhel8, ocs4/mcg-rhel8-operator, ocs4/ocs-rhel8-operator, ocs4/rook-ceph-rhel8-operator
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4 odf4/ocs-rhel9-operator, odf4/odr-rhel9-operator, odf4/odf-lvm-rhel8-operator, odf4/odf-multicluster-rhel9-operator Red Hat OpenShift Data Science (RHODS) rhods/odh-operator-base-rhel8, rhods/odh-ml-pipelines-cache-rhel8, rhods/odh-modelmesh-serving-controller-rhel8
    affected: no fix available “Fix deferred”
  • Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces devspaces/traefik-rhel8 Red Hat OpenShift distributed tracing 2 rhosdt/opentelemetry-rhel8-operator Red Hat OpenShift GitOps openshift-gitops-1/argocd-rhel8, openshift-gitops-1/gitops-rhel8, openshift-gitops-1/kam-delivery-rhel8, openshift-gitops-1/applicationset-rhel8, openshift-gitops-1/gitops-rhel8-operator
    affected: no fix available
  • Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4 container-native-virtualization/multus-dynamic-networks-rhel9, container-native-virtualization/cluster-network-addons-operator, container-native-virtualization/kubernetes-nmstate-handler-rhel8
    affected: no fix available, no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat Quay 3 quay/quay-builder-rhel8, quay/quay-operator-rhel8
    affected: no fix planned “Will not fix”
  • Red Hat CNV 4.14 for RHEL 9 container-native-virtualization/cluster-network-addons-operator-rhel9 v4.14.0--2023-113931
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:6817
  • Red Hat OpenShift API for Data Protection 1.1 oadp/oadp-velero-plugin-rhel8 1.1.6-5
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:5314
  • Red Hat OpenShift Sandboxed Containers 1.5 openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-rhel9-operator 1.5.0-14
    fixed: vendor fix RHEA-2023:7493
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 8) crit 3.18-4.module+el8.9.0+19090+d2921118, criu 3.18-4.module+el8.9.0+19090+d2921118, crun 1.8.7-1.module+el8.9.0+19731+94cfa27e, runc 1.1.9-1.module+el8.9.0+19648+0d5ae0ec, conmon 2.1.8-1.module+el8.9.0+19761+326da906, podman 4.6.1-4.module+el8.9.0+19761+326da906, +27 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:6939
  • Red Hat Enterprise Linux AppStream (v. 9) podman 4.6.1-5.el9, buildah 1.31.3-1.el9, podman-tests 4.6.1-5.el9, podman-docker 4.6.1-5.el9, podman-remote 4.6.1-5.el9, buildah-tests 1.31.3-1.el9, +2 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:6473
  • Red Hat Migration Toolkit 1.7 rhmtc/openshift-velero-plugin-rhel8 v1.7.9-4, rhmtc/openshift-migration-controller-rhel8 v1.7.9-4
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:2107
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 openshift4-wincw/windows-machine-config-rhel8-operator 6.0.1-38
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:4488
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 openshift4-wincw/windows-machine-config-rhel8-operator 7.1.0-42, openshift4/ose-docker-builder v4.12.0-202308091944.p0.g1f99147.assembly.stream
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:4025
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.13 openshift4-wincw/windows-machine-config-rhel9-operator 8.0.0-47, openshift4/ose-installer v4.13.0-202305091542.p0.g44db7b2.assembly.stream, openshift4/ose-docker-builder v4.13.0-202306050632.p0.gd02643e.assembly.stream, openshift4/oc-mirror-plugin-rhel8 v4.13.0-202305091542.p0.gbee629a.assembly.stream, openshift4/ose-operator-marketplace v4.13.0-202305021528.p0.gd569c22.assembly.stream, openshift4/ose-openshift-apiserver-rhel8 v4.13.0-202307170916.p0.g0b82768.assembly.stream
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:1326
  • Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14 openshift4/ose-installer v4.14.0-202310201027.p0.g03546e5.assembly.stream, openshift4/oc-mirror-plugin-rhel8 v4.14.0-202310201027.p0.g68cf97e.assembly.stream
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:5006
  • Red Hat OpenShift Serverless 1.0 openshift-serverless-clients 1.8.1-3.el8
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:3450
  • Red Hat OpenShift Serverless 1.29 openshift-serverless-1/client-kn-rhel8 1.8.1-3, openshift-serverless-1/func-utils-rhel8 1.29.0-3, openshift-serverless-1/serving-queue-rhel8 1.8.0-3, openshift-serverless-1/eventing-mtping-rhel8 1.8.0-3, openshift-serverless-1/kourier-control-rhel8 1.8.0-3, openshift-serverless-1/serving-webhook-rhel8 1.8.0-3, +31 more
    fixed: vendor fix RHSA-2023:3455
  • Red Hat CNV 4.14 for RHEL 9 container-native-virtualization/pr-helper-rhel9 v4.14.0-395, container-native-virtualization/mtq-operator-rhel9 v4.14.0-82, container-native-virtualization/mtq-controller-rhel9 v4.14.0-83, container-native-virtualization/mtq-lock-server-rhel9 v4.14.0-83, container-native-virtualization/virt-api-rhel9 v4.14.0--2023-113931, container-native-virtualization/virtio-win-rhel9 v4.14.0--2023-113931, +37 more Red Hat Logging Subsystem for Red Hat OpenShift openshift-logging/logging-loki-rhel9, openshift-logging/opa-openshift-rhel8, openshift-logging/lokistack-gateway-rhel8 Red Hat OpenShift API for Data Protection 1.1 oadp/oadp-velero-rhel8 1.1.6-7, oadp/oadp-rhel8-operator 1.1.6-6, oadp/oadp-mustgather-rhel8 1.1.6-9, oadp/oadp-operator-bundle 1.1.6-14, oadp/oadp-velero-plugin-for-aws-rhel8 1.1.6-5, oadp/oadp-velero-plugin-for-csi-rhel8 1.1.6-5, +5 more Red Hat OpenShift Sandboxed Containers 1.5 openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-monitor-rhel9 1.5.0-9, openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-operator-bundle 1.5.0-45, openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-must-gather-rhel9 1.5.0-11, openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-podvm-payload-rhel9 1.5.0-12, openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-cloud-api-adaptor-rhel9 1.5.0-11, openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-cloud-api-adaptor-webhook-rhel9 1.5.0-8 Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2 rhacm2/thanos-rhel7, rhacm2/prometheus-rhel9, rhacm2/acm-grafana-rhel8, rhacm2/observatorium-rhel8, rhacm2/acm-prometheus-rhel8, rhacm2/multiclusterhub-rhel8, +21 more Red Hat Ansible Automation Platform 1.2 openshift-clients
    not affected: vulnerable code not present

11 more not affected in the full advisory

Red Hat CSAF VEX © Red Hat, Inc., from https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/; changed: reduced to product statuses and remediations. CC BY 4.0 · csaf

CISA SSVC

Exploitation
Proof of concept is public
Automatable
no
Technical impact
partial
Assessed
19 mo ago

Exploit prediction

0.54% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 45% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-08).

Exploits and checks

  • benthamsgaze.org https://www.benthamsgaze.org/2022/08/22/vulnerability-in-linux-containers-investigation-and-mitigation/ referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.1 5.3 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L
NVD 3.1 7.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
GitHub 3.0 5.3 CVSS:3.0/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L

Affected packages

ecosystem package affected fixed in
go github.com/containerd/containerd
<1.5.18
>=1.6.0, <1.6.18
1.5.18
1.6.18

Affected products

  • containerd containerd

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-863 Incorrect Authorization
  • CWE-269 Improper Privilege Management

References

Sources

Fencer Vulns keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.