Openshift Container PlatformApplication · Redhat
CVE-2019-19352
Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.
NVD · uneditedAn insecure modification vulnerability in the /etc/passwd file was found in the operator-framework/presto as shipped in Red Hat Openshift 4. An attacker with access to the container could use this flaw to modify /etc/passwd and escalate their privileges.
Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.
dbcve analysis · high confidenceThe operator-framework/presto container shipped with Red Hat Openshift 4 contains an insecurely configured /etc/passwd file that is writable by attackers who gain access to the container. This misconfiguration allows modification of user accounts in /etc/passwd, enabling privilege escalation from a compromised container user to root or other system users.
Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.
Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.
NVD · CPE data
Openshift Container PlatformApplication
= 4.0CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.
From the vector- Attack vector
- Local
- Complexity
- High
- Privileges
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.
dbcve checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify if presto container is deployedRun 'oc get pods -A | grep -i presto' or 'kubectl get pods -all-namespaces | grep -i presto' to locate operator-framework/presto containers in the OpenShift clusterAffected if Any presto pods are found running in the cluster using the vulnerable operator-framework/presto image
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Check /etc/passwd permissions inside the containerExecute 'oc exec -it <presto-pod-name> -c presto -- ls -la /etc/passwd' or use kubectl exec to inspect the permissions on /etc/passwd inside the containerAffected if The permissions show write access for any user (such as 'rw-r--r--' is expected, but 'rw-rw-rw-' indicates the flaw)
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Test if /etc/passwd is writableExecute 'oc exec -it <presto-pod-name> -c presto -- test -w /etc/passwd && echo Writable || echo Not writable' to determine if the file has write permissionsAffected if The command returns 'Writable', indicating the file can be modified by the container user
A user is affected if the operator-framework/presto container from OpenShift 4.0 is running and /etc/passwd inside that container has writable permissions for any user, allowing privilege escalation.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.
From vendor dataRebuild or update the operator-framework/presto container image with proper /etc/passwd file permissions (read-only) or use a read-only root filesystem with appropriate volume mounts for any required runtime modifications.
Fix this in Openshift Container Platform
Scoped from the published advisory
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,560.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2019-19352 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2019-19352 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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