{"id":"CVE-2025-4437","aliases":["EUVD-2025-28020","GHSA-8f93-j3fx-72f3","GO-2025-3897"],"status":"published","title":"Cri-o: large /etc/passwd file may lead to denial of service","description":"There's a vulnerability in the CRI-O application where when container is launched with securityContext.runAsUser specifying a non-existent user, CRI-O attempts to create the user, reading the container's entire /etc/passwd file into memory. If this file is excessively large, it can cause the a high memory consumption leading applications to be killed due to out-of-memory. As a result a denial-of-service can be achieved, possibly disrupting other pods and services running in the same host.","severity":{"version":"3.1","score":5.7,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium","assessor":"cna","from":"cve"},"epss":{"day":"2026-11-10","score":0.00263,"percentile":0.18276,"model":"v2026.06.15"},"facts":{"in_kev":false,"known_exploited":false,"public_exploit":false,"fix_available":false},"cwes":["CWE-770"],"published":"2025-08-20T12:19:18Z","modified":"2026-09-26T00:10:00Z","affected":[{"source":"ghsa","ecosystem":"Go","package":"github.com/cri-o/cri-o","ranges":[{"type":"ECOSYSTEM","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"last_affected":"1.33.3"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Go","package":"github.com/cri-o/cri-o","ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0"},{"last_affected":"1.33.3"}]}]},{"source":"osv","ecosystem":"Go","package":"github.com/cri-o/cri-o","ranges":[{"type":"SEMVER","events":[{"introduced":"0"}]}]}],"products":[{"vendor":"red hat","product":"red hat openshift container platform 4"}],"references":[{"url":"https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-4437","tags":["vdb-entry","x_refsource_REDHAT","web"]},{"url":"https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2375084","tags":["issue-tracking","x_refsource_REDHAT","web"]},{"url":"https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-4437","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2025-3897","tags":["web"]},{"url":"https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-8f93-j3fx-72f3","tags":["advisory"]},{"url":"https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o","tags":["package"]}],"sources":{"cve":[{"id":"CVE-2025-4437","title":"Cri-o: large /etc/passwd file may lead to denial of service","description":"There's a vulnerability in the CRI-O application where when container is launched with securityContext.runAsUser specifying a non-existent user, CRI-O attempts to create the user, reading the container's entire /etc/passwd file into memory. If this file is excessively large, it can cause the a high memory consumption leading applications to be killed due to out-of-memory. As a result a denial-of-service can be achieved, possibly disrupting other pods and services running in the same host.","status":"published","published":"2025-08-20T12:19:18.453Z","modified":"2026-09-01T11:51:10.231Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":5.7,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium","assessor":"cna"}],"cwes":["CWE-770"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:32:48.512547Z"}],"euvd":[{"id":"EUVD-2025-28020","description":"There's a vulnerability in the CRI-O application where when container is launched with securityContext.runAsUser specifying a non-existent user, CRI-O attempts to create the user, reading the container's entire /etc/passwd file into memory. If this file is excessively large, it can cause the a high memory consumption leading applications to be killed due to out-of-memory. As a result a denial-of-service can be achieved, possibly disrupting other pods and services running in the same host.","status":"published","published":"2025-08-20T12:19:18Z","modified":"2026-09-01T11:51:10Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":5.7,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T18:01:19.285273Z"}],"ghsa":[{"id":"GHSA-8f93-j3fx-72f3","title":"CRI-O has Potential High Memory Consumption from File Read","description":"There's a vulnerability in the CRI-O application where when container is launched with securityContext.runAsUser specifying a non-existent user, CRI-O attempts to create the user, reading the container's entire /etc/passwd file into memory. If this file is excessively large, it can cause the a high memory consumption leading applications to be killed due to out-of-memory. As a result a denial-of-service can be achieved, possibly disrupting other pods and services running in the same host.","status":"published","published":"2025-08-20T15:31:41Z","modified":"2025-08-29T20:38:22Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":5.7,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"cwes":["CWE-770"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:38:55.953734Z"}],"nvd":[{"id":"CVE-2025-4437","description":"There's a vulnerability in the CRI-O application where when container is launched with securityContext.runAsUser specifying a non-existent user, CRI-O attempts to create the user, reading the container's entire /etc/passwd file into memory. If this file is excessively large, it can cause the a high memory consumption leading applications to be killed due to out-of-memory. As a result a denial-of-service can be achieved, possibly disrupting other pods and services running in the same host.","status":"published","published":"2025-08-20T13:15:28.673Z","modified":"2026-09-26T00:10:00.127Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":5.7,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium","assessor":"secondary"}],"cwes":["CWE-770"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T14:11:25.261243Z"}],"osv":[{"id":"GHSA-8f93-j3fx-72f3","title":"CRI-O has Potential High Memory Consumption from File Read","description":"There's a vulnerability in the CRI-O application where when container is launched with securityContext.runAsUser specifying a non-existent user, CRI-O attempts to create the user, reading the container's entire /etc/passwd file into memory. If this file is excessively large, it can cause the a high memory consumption leading applications to be killed due to out-of-memory. As a result a denial-of-service can be achieved, possibly disrupting other pods and services running in the same host.","status":"published","published":"2025-08-20T15:31:41Z","modified":"2025-08-29T20:38:22Z","cvss":[{"version":"3.1","score":5.7,"vector":"CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H","level":"medium"}],"cwes":["CWE-770"],"updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:46:42.077781Z"},{"id":"GO-2025-3897","title":"CRI-O has Potential High Memory Consumption from File Read in github.com/cri-o/cri-o","description":"CRI-O has Potential High Memory Consumption from File Read in github.com/cri-o/cri-o","status":"published","published":"2025-08-29T14:52:20Z","modified":"2026-03-03T04:56:51.746813Z","updated_at":"2026-11-02T15:47:01.728182Z"}]}}