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Incorrect Default PermissionsWeakness · CWE-276

CVE-2025-3528

HIGH · 8.2 CVSS v3.1 Published 2025-05-09
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
82/100
Remediation priority · High

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 the Mirror Registry. The quay-app container shipped as part of the Mirror Registry for OpenShift has write access to the `/etc/passwd`. This flaw allows a malicious actor with access to the container to modify the passwd file and elevate their privileges to the root user within that pod.

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

The quay-app container in Red Hat's Mirror Registry for OpenShift has unintended write access to the /etc/passwd file. An attacker who gains container access can modify this file to create a new root user or modify existing user mappings, achieving privilege escalation to root within the pod context.

MitigationApply a read-only root filesystem or restrict container filesystem permissions via security contexts to prevent write access to /etc/passwd; also apply pod security policies to enforce least-privilege container execution.

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
Required
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/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 checks

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

  1. Identify quay-app container from Mirror Registry
    Run 'oc get pods -A | grep quay-app' or 'kubectl get pods -A | grep quay-app' to list quay-app pods. Also check 'oc get pods -A -l app=quay' to find all Quay-related pods.
    Affected if A quay-app pod from Red Hat Mirror Registry for OpenShift is running in the cluster
  2. Verify /etc/passwd is writable inside the container
    Exec into the container with 'oc exec -it <quay-app-pod> -n <namespace> -- /bin/sh' then run 'ls -la /etc/passwd' and test with 'touch /etc/passwd.test' or check mount status with 'mount | grep /etc'
    Affected if The /etc/passwd file shows write permissions for the container's user (typically root or quay user) or is mounted as writable
  3. Check container security context for root filesystem
    Run 'oc get pod <quay-app-pod> -n <namespace> -o jsonpath={.spec.containers[0].securityContext}' to view the security context. Look for 'readOnlyRootFilesystem: true' setting.
    Affected if The securityContext does NOT have readOnlyRootFilesystem set to true, or the field is absent entirely
  4. Check pod security context and admission controls
    Run 'oc get pod <quay-app-pod> -n <namespace> -o jsonpath={.spec.securityContext}' to view pod-level security context. Also check for PodSecurityPolicy or Gatekeeper/OPA constraints with 'oc get psp' or relevant policy resources.
    Affected if No pod security policy restricts filesystem write access, or the pod runs with privileged or high-privilege security context
  5. Verify filesystem mounts are read-only
    From inside the container, run 'mount | grep -E "^/dev|/etc"' or check 'oc describe pod <quay-app-pod> -n <namespace> | grep -A5 Volumes' to see if any volume mounts override /etc with writable storage.
    Affected if The /etc directory or /etc/passwd file is mounted from a ConfigMap, secret, or emptyDir with default (writable) permissions

A user is affected if a quay-app pod from Mirror Registry for OpenShift is running and the container has writable access to /etc/passwd, which is indicated by absent readOnlyRootFilesystem setting and unrestricted filesystem permissions.

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

Apply a read-only root filesystem or restrict container filesystem permissions via security contexts to prevent write access to /etc/passwd; also apply pod security policies to enforce least-privilege container execution.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation2.0 h
  • Implementation3.0 h
  • Testing2.0 h
  • Review / QA1.0 h
8.0 hours of engineering $1,420
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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-2025-3528 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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