CVE-2025-4437 MEDIUM

CVE-2025-4437: Cri-o: large /etc/passwd file may lead to denial of service

Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4
Weakness CWE-770 · Uncontrolled resource consumption
Published August 20, 2025
Last update November 20, 2025

CVSS base score

5.7/10
Attack vector Network
Attack complexity Low
Privileges required Low
User interaction Required
Confidentiality None
Integrity None

CVSS vector

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

What the vulnerability does

01Description

There's a vulnerability in the CRI-O application where when container is launched with securityContext.runAsUser specifying a non-existent user, CRI-O attempts to create the user, reading the container's entire /etc/passwd file into memory. If this file is excessively large, it can cause the a high memory consumption leading applications to be killed due to out-of-memory. As a result a denial-of-service can be achieved, possibly disrupting other pods and services running in the same host.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

August 20, 2025 CVE published
November 20, 2025 Record updated