CVE-2025-57850 MEDIUM

CVE-2025-57850: Codeready-ws: privilege escalation via excessive /etc/passwd permissions

Vendor Red Hat
Product Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces
Weakness CWE-276
Published December 2, 2025
Last update March 12, 2026

CVSS base score

6.4/10
Attack vector Local
Attack complexity High
Privileges required High
User interaction None
Confidentiality High
Integrity High

CVSS vector

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

What the vulnerability does

01Description

A container privilege escalation flaw was found in certain CodeReady Workspaces 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.

Key dates

02Disclosure timeline

December 2, 2025 CVE published
March 12, 2026 Record updated