A container privilege escalation flaw was found in certain Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes 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.
History

Wed, 08 Apr 2026 14:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A container privilege escalation flaw was found in certain Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes 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.
Title Mce: privilege escalation via excessive /etc/passwd permissions
First Time appeared Redhat
Redhat multicluster Engine
Weaknesses CWE-276
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:multicluster_engine
Vendors & Products Redhat
Redhat multicluster Engine
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 6.4, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}


cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: redhat

Published:

Updated: 2026-04-08T15:18:38.990Z

Reserved: 2025-08-21T14:40:40.822Z

Link: CVE-2025-57851

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-04-08T14:16:25.817

Modified: 2026-04-08T14:16:25.817

Link: CVE-2025-57851

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.