CVE-2022-4318 | Cri-o: /etc/passwd tampering privesc

A vulnerability was found in cri-o. This issue allows the addition of arbitrary lines into /etc/passwd by use of a specially crafted environment variable.

Published: 2023-09-25 Last update: 2024-11-21 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Modified，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2022-4318 is rated Low Risk (35.5/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.04%). Monitor for updates and reassess as exploit intelligence or EPSS changes.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2022-4318

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2025-11-21 0.08% 0.04% -0.04%
2 2025-11-18 0.04% 0.08% +0.04%
3 2025-06-06 — 0.04% —

Full EPSS history (7 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2022-4318

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]
7.8 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:L)
They already need access on the box, or another person has to do something wrong; it’s not a remote drive-by.
Attack complexity (AC:L)
Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L)
A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N)
Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:U)
Damage stays in the same “trust bubble” as the broken component—no big spill into unrelated systems.
Confidentiality (C:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
 1.8 5.9 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2022-4318

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2022-4318

GHSA-cm9x-c3rh-7rc4 · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: go — CRI-O vulnerable to /etc/passwd tampering resulting in Privilege Escalation

OS Trackers for CVE-2022-4318

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2022-4318: 1 source package rows (cri-o); 3 state rows across 3 repos (3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 3, open 0. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2022-4318
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-4318
suse medium CVE-2022-4318 severity moderate: SUSE including 2 source package names (cri-o, cri-o-kubeadm-criconfig), 2 product×package rows across 1 product lines (SUSE CaaS Platform 4.0): Will Not Fix 2. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2022-4318/
ubuntu medium CVE-2022-4318 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (cri-o), 5 status rows across 5 suites (focal, jammy, noble, oracular, upstream): DNE 4, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2022-4318

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2022-4318

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
kubernetes cri-o — cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:cri-o:-:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform_for_arm64 4.12 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform_for_arm64:4.12:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform_for_linuxone 4.12 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform_for_linuxone:4.12:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform_for_power 4.12 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform_for_power:4.12:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform_ibm_z_systems 4.12 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform_ibm_z_systems:4.12:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux 8.0 cpe:2.3:a:fedoraproject:extra_packages_for_enterprise_linux:8.0:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 36 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:36:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
fedoraproject fedora 37 cpe:2.3:o:fedoraproject:fedora:37:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform_for_arm64 4.11 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform_for_arm64:4.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform_for_linuxone 4.11 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform_for_linuxone:4.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform_for_power 4.11 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform_for_power:4.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
redhat openshift_container_platform_ibm_z_systems 4.11 cpe:2.3:a:redhat:openshift_container_platform_ibm_z_systems:4.11:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2022-4318

cvelogic Threat Intelligence