dbcve.org
Incorrect Default PermissionsWeakness · CWE-276

CVE-2025-13193

MEDIUM · 5.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-11-17
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
57/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Zero-click

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 · unedited
A flaw was found in libvirt. External inactive snapshots for shut-down VMs are incorrectly created as world-readable, making it possible for unprivileged users to inspect the guest OS contents. This results in an information disclosure vulnerability.

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 confidence

libvirt incorrectly creates external inactive snapshots for shut-down VMs with world-readable permissions (0664 or similar), allowing any unprivileged system user to read the snapshot data and inspect guest OS contents.

MitigationConfigure libvirt to create snapshots with restrictive permissions (e.g., 0600) and audit/fix permissions on existing external snapshots to prevent unauthorized access.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

CVSS 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
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
None
Availability
None

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

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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Confirm libvirt installation and version
    Run 'rpm -qa | grep libvirt' (RHEL) or 'dpkg -l | grep libvirt' (Debian) to list installed libvirt packages. Note the version string for comparison against the fixed version in your distribution's security advisories.
    Affected if libvirt is installed and the version is lower than the patched version for your distribution.
  2. Identify external snapshots for shut-down VMs
    Run 'virsh list --all --title' to list all VMs and their state. For each shut-down VM, run 'virsh snapshot-list <vm-name>' and inspect snapshot XML via 'virsh snapshot-dumpxml <vm-name> <snapshot-name>' looking for '<disk>' elements with 'type="file"' and '<snapshot type="external"' in the XML output.
    Affected if Any shut-down VM has external (type=external) snapshots defined.
  3. Locate external snapshot file paths
    From the snapshot XML, identify the '<source file=' or '<file path=' attributes in disk sections to find the actual file paths of external snapshot files on the host filesystem.
    Affected if External snapshot files exist at paths accessible via the filesystem.
  4. Check permissions on external snapshot files
    Run 'ls -la' on each external snapshot file path identified. Look for permission bits: if the file shows permissions like 'rw-rw-r--' (0664), 'rw-r--r--' (0644), or similar world-readable settings, the vulnerability is present.
    Affected if Any external snapshot file for a shut-down VM has permissions granting read access to 'others' (e.g., mode ends in 4 or 5, or contains 'r--r--r--').

If external snapshots exist for shut-down VMs and any snapshot file grants world-readable (group or other) permissions, the environment is affected by CVE-2025-13193.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

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 data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Configure libvirt to create snapshots with restrictive permissions (e.g., 0600) and audit/fix permissions on existing external snapshots to prevent unauthorized access.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation4.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
10.0 hours of engineering $1,800
Get help mitigating

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $2,880.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-13193 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2025-13193 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data