CVE-2025-4437 — Cri-o: large /etc/passwd file may lead to denial of service
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 use…
Published: 2025-08-20 · CVSS: 5.7 · CVSS 3.1
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.
Source: CVE Program · Revision 8b16575c39f1e1810c5e863010da073d2d3285e7