Github.com/cri-o/cri-o: fix bypass for cve-2022-4318 — /etc/passwd injection via home env (CVE-2026-15809)

Why this deserves its current priority

CVSS is 7.8. The current sources do not mark it as known exploited. Treat this as a source-backed prioritization signal, not a statement about your environment.

Analysis status

Analysis pending evidence review

Factual feed record only; HOL analysis is not approved for indexing. Read the methodology.

Affected scope and exposure questions

The current feed maps Red Hat/cri-o (generic), Red Hat/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8 (generic), Red Hat/openshift4/ztp-site-generate-rhel8 (generic), Red Hat/openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-monitor-rhel9 (generic). Check affected ranges and fixed versions before updating.

Mapped affected packages and fixed versions
Package	Affected range	Fixed version
Red Hat/cri-ogeneric	*	Not reported
Red Hat/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8generic	*	Not reported
Red Hat/openshift4/ztp-site-generate-rhel8generic	*	Not reported
Red Hat/openshift-sandboxed-containers/osc-monitor-rhel9generic	*	Not reported

Recommended response

Check inventory. Check lockfiles and deployed manifests for Red Hat/cri-o, Red Hat/openshift4/cnf-tests-rhel8, Red Hat/openshift4/ztp-site-generate-rhel8.
Review the reported fix. Source-reported workaround: Restrict access to users who can create or modify container workloads through appropriate RBAC permissions, apply security controls such as Security Context Constraints (SCCs) to limit privilege escalation, and enforce policies to run containers with reduced privileges (for example, as non-root) to reduce the impact of potential exploitation. Enable SELinux on affected nodes and consider admission controls to prevent potentially unsafe workload configurations.

Evidence timeline and material changes

Published upstream
Jul 15, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
Source modified
Nov 2, 2026
Evidence: source:cvelist:source_dates:source-dates:record
First seen by HOL
Jul 15, 2026

Sources and claim methodology

Upstream source description

A flaw was found in CRI-O. The fix for a previous vulnerability (CVE-2022-4318) was incorrect, allowing it to be bypassed. An attacker capable of setting environment variables on a container can inject a newline character into the HOME environment variable. This issue allows the addition of arbitrary lines into /etc/passwd by use of a specially crafted environment variable.

Quoted source text, attributed separately from HOL analysis.

Github.com/cri-o/cri-o: fix bypass for cve-2022-4318 — /etc/passwd injection via home envCVE-2026-15809