CVE-2025-57848
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 · uneditedA container privilege escalation flaw was found in certain Container-native Virtualization 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.
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 · moderate confidenceIn Container-native Virtualization images, the /etc/passwd file is created with group-writable permissions (likely 664 or similar) during the image build process. A non-root user who is a member of the root group within the container can modify this file to add a new user with UID 0, effectively granting themselves full root privileges.
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
- High
- Privileges
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/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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Verify /etc/passwd file permissionsRun 'ls -la /etc/passwd' and check the file mode. Look for 'g+w' in the permissions (e.g., -rw-rw-r-- = 664) indicating group-writable access.Affected if The file mode includes group-write permission (such as 664, 666, or similar) and a non-root user exists in the root group.
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Identify users in the root groupRun 'grep "^root:" /etc/group' or 'getent group root' to list all members of the root group.Affected if Any non-root user account is listed as a member of the root group.
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Check for unauthorized UID 0 accountsRun 'awk -F: '($3 == 0) {print}' /etc/passwd' to list all accounts with UID 0.Affected if Any account other than the expected root account has UID 0, indicating potential privilege escalation.
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Verify current user contextRun 'id' to see the current user's UID, GID, and group memberships.Affected if The current user is not root (UID != 0) but is a member of the root group, and /etc/passwd is group-writable.
A user is affected if /etc/passwd has group-write permissions AND a non-root user either is a member of the root group or has added an unauthorized UID 0 account to /etc/passwd.
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 dataModify the image build process to ensure /etc/passwd is created with owner-write-only permissions (0644 or stricter) and avoid assigning regular users to the root group.
- Consultation2.0 h
- Implementation3.0 h
- Testing2.0 h
- Review / QA1.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-57848 — 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-2025-57848 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
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