Summary
Libcontainer is affected by capabilities elevation similar to GHSA-f3fp-gc8g-vw66
Workarounds
- Do not pass any user-provided capabilities to the tenant builder, in which case no capabilities will be set on tenant.
- Alternatively you can verify the capabilities of original container and filter the user passed capabilities before setting them on tenant.
References
Impact
In libcontainer, while creating a tenant container, the tenant builder accepts a list of capabilities to be added in the spec of tenant container. Code can be seen here . The logic here adds the given capabilities to all capabilities of main container if present in spec, otherwise simply set provided capabilities as capabilities of the tenant container.
However, GHSA-f3fp-gc8g-vw66 was opened on runc mentioning that setting inherited caps in any case for tenant container can lead to elevation of capabilities. For this, they added a fix here where they never set new inherited caps on tenant, and set ambient caps only if original container had inherited caps.
Similarly crun never sets inherited caps as can be seen here.
[!NOTE]
This does not affect youki binary itself, as the exec implementation is partially broken and does not pass on the user-provided caps to tenant containers, this is only applicable if you are using libcontainer directly and using the tenant builder.
CVE-2025-27612 has a CVSS score of 5.9 (Medium). The vector is requires local access, no privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (0.5.3); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
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Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2025-27612? CVE-2025-27612 is a medium-severity security vulnerability in libcontainer (rust), affecting versions < 0.5.3. It is fixed in 0.5.3.
- How severe is CVE-2025-27612? CVE-2025-27612 has a CVSS score of 5.9 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
- Which versions of libcontainer are affected by CVE-2025-27612? libcontainer (rust) versions < 0.5.3 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2025-27612? Yes. CVE-2025-27612 is fixed in 0.5.3. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2025-27612 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2025-27612 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
- What actually determines whether CVE-2025-27612 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
- How do I fix CVE-2025-27612? Upgrade
libcontainerto 0.5.3 or later.