CVE-2025-60892
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 issue in Raspberry Pi Imager version 1.9.6 for Windows, affecting its OS customization feature. The imager's 'public-key authentication' setting unintentionally re-adds a user's id_rsa.pub key from their local Windows machine to the authorized_keys file on the Raspberry Pi, even after the user explicitly deletes the key from the user interface. This creates an unintended attack surface, as it could allow an attacker to use a different key than the intended one to login to the device.
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 confidenceRaspberry Pi Imager 1.9.6 for Windows contains a logic flaw in its OS customization feature where user-deleted SSH public keys are inadvertently re-added to the target device's authorized_keys file from the local machine's id_rsa.pub, bypassing the user's explicit deletion and creating an unintended authentication pathway.
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
- None
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- Low
- Availability
- None
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Identify installed Raspberry Pi Imager versionOpen Raspberry Pi Imager, go to Help > About, or check Programs and Features to confirm version 1.9.6 is installedAffected if Version is 1.9.6 for Windows
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Determine if OS customization was used during imagingReview whether you used the OS Customization dialog when writing an image to an SD card or USB driveAffected if OS Customization was used with SSH public key settings enabled
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Check authorized_keys on the target Raspberry Pi deviceMount the imaged SD card or USB drive, navigate to the boot partition, locate the user-data file or check the authorized_keys file in /home/pi/.ssh/ (or the equivalent for the configured username) after first bootAffected if The authorized_keys file contains an SSH public key that you explicitly deleted during customization but which matches your local machine's id_rsa.pub
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Compare authorized_keys content to local id_rsa.pubOn the Windows host, type 'type %USERPROFILE%\.ssh\id_rsa.pub' to display your local public key, then compare it to the authorized_keys found on the imaged deviceAffected if Your local id_rsa.pub key appears in the target device's authorized_keys despite having been removed during customization
You are affected if you used Raspberry Pi Imager 1.9.6 for Windows with the OS customization SSH key feature and your local id_rsa.pub key now exists in a target device's authorized_keys file even though you deleted it during the imaging process.
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 dataAvoid using the public-key authentication feature in Raspberry Pi Imager 1.9.6 for Windows until patched, and manually inspect/remove any unexpected keys from the authorized_keys file on imaged Raspberry Pi devices.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation8.0 h
- Testing4.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
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Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2025-60892 — 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-2025-60892 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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