Vulnerability · Published Sep 30, 2025 · Assigned by redhat
CVE-2025-57852Openshift-ai: privilege escalation via excessive /etc/passwd permissions
Medium 6.4
In plain English
A medium-severity incorrect default permissions in Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.16 from Red Hat. There are no confirmed reports of exploitation so far. The chance it is exploited in the next 30 days is estimated at 0.2% (higher than 5% of all known vulnerabilities).
Official description
A container privilege escalation flaw was found in KServe ModelMesh container 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.
Affected products (as reported)
| Vendor | Product | Versions |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat | Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.16 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.19 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.21 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.22 | see references |
| Red Hat | Red Hat OpenShift AI 2.24 | see references |
Weakness: CWE-276 · Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
References
- RHSA-2025:16981 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2025:16982 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2025:16983 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2025:16984 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHSA-2025:17501 vendor-advisory, x_refsource_REDHAT
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-57852 vdb-entry, x_refsource_REDHAT
- RHBZ#2391105 issue-tracking, x_refsource_REDHAT