Vulnerability · Published Apr 8, 2026 · Assigned by redhat

CVE-2025-57853Web-terminal: privilege escalation via excessive /etc/passwd permissions

Medium 6.4

In plain English

A medium-severity incorrect default permissions in Red Hat Web Terminal 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 6% of all known vulnerabilities).

Severity (CVSS 3.1)6.4Medium

Exploit odds (30 days)0.2%top 94.3% of all CVEs

Exploited in the wildNo reportsCISA SSVC: none

Attack toolingNoneno public tooling known

Official description

A container privilege escalation flaw was found in certain Web Terminal 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 Web Terminal	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

https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-57853 vdb-entry, x_refsource_REDHAT
RHBZ#2391106 issue-tracking, x_refsource_REDHAT