CVE-2025-6032
Description
A flaw was found in Podman. The podman machine init command fails to verify the TLS certificate when downloading the VM images from an OCI registry. This issue results in a Man In The Middle attack.
Statement
To exploit this flaw, a user needs to download an image from an untrusted OCI registry, specifically, an OCI registry with an invalid TLS certificate. This allows a remote attacker with access to the network path between the registry and the client to perform a Man In the Middle attack.
Mitigation
Download the VM image manually with another tool that verifies the TLS certificate and then pass the local image as a file path to podman, for example:
# podman machine init --image <local-image-path>
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 8.3 | N/A | 8.3 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | High | N/A | High |
| Privileges Required | None | N/A | None |
| User Interaction | Required | N/A | Required |
| Scope | Changed | N/A | Changed |
| Confidentiality | High | N/A | High |
| Integrity Impact | High | N/A | High |
| Availability Impact | High | N/A | High |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Integrity,Authentication
Technical Impact: Bypass Protection Mechanism; Gain Privileges or Assume Identity
When a certificate is invalid or malicious, it might allow an attacker to spoof a trusted entity by interfering in the communication path between the host and client. The product might connect to a malicious host while believing it is a trusted host, or the product might be deceived into accepting spoofed data that appears to originate from a trusted host.
Acknowledgements
This issue was discovered by Paul Holzinger (Red Hat Inc.).
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