CVE-2024-45310 | runc can be confused to create empty files/directories on the host

runc is a CLI tool for spawning and running containers according to the OCI specification. runc 1.1.13 and earlier, as well as 1.2.0-rc2 and earlier, can be tricked into creating empty files or directories in arbitrary locations in the host filesystem by sharing a volume between two containers and exploiting a race with `os.MkdirAll`. While this could be used to create empty files, existing files would not be truncated. An attacker must have the ability to start containers using some kind of custom volume configuration. Containers using user namespaces are still affected, but the scope of places an attacker can create inodes can be significantly reduced. Sufficiently strict LSM policies (SELinux/Apparmor) can also in principle block this attack -- we suspect the industry standard SELinux policy may restrict this attack's scope but the exact scope of protection hasn't been analysed. This is exploitable using runc directly as well as through Docker and Kubernetes. The issue is fixed in runc v1.1.14 and v1.2.0-rc3. Some workarounds are available. Using user namespaces restricts this attack fairly significantly such that the attacker can only create inodes in directories that the remapped root user/group has write access to. Unless the root user is remapped to an actual user on the host (such as with rootless containers that don't use `/etc/sub[ug]id`), this in practice means that an attacker would only be able to create inodes in world-writable directories. A strict enough SELinux or AppArmor policy could in principle also restrict the scope if a specific label is applied to the runc runtime, though neither the extent to which the standard existing policies block this attack nor what exact policies are needed to sufficiently restrict this attack have been thoroughly tested.

Published: 2024-09-03 Last update: 2025-11-25 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2024-45310 is rated Low Risk (22.7/100): CVSS Low severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.32%). 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-2024-45310

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 2026-06-15 0.15% 0.32% +0.17%
2 2026-05-26 0.14% 0.15% +0.01%
3 2026-04-07 — 0.14% —

Full EPSS history (11 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2024-45310

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
3.6 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N 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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 1.4 [email protected]
3.6 3.1 LOW
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N 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:N)
No account or special rights needed—anonymous or random user is enough.
User interaction (UI:R)
A real person has to do something—click, install, enable—otherwise it doesn’t land.
Scope (S:C)
Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:N)
Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:L)
Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 1.8 1.4 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2024-45310

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2024-45310

GHSA-jfvp-7x6p-h2pv · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: go — runc can be confused to create empty files/directories on the host

OS Trackers for CVE-2024-45310

vendor priority summary link
alpine — CVE-2024-45310: 1 source package rows (runc); 23 state rows across 4 repos (3.20-community, 3.21-community, 3.22-community, edge-community); fixed 4, open 19. https://security.alpinelinux.org/vuln/CVE-2024-45310
debian not yet assigned CVE-2024-45310 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (runc), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 3, open 2. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2024-45310
redhat low — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-45310
suse low CVE-2024-45310 severity low: SUSE including 360 source package names (2.0.4-5.5.317:runc-1.2.6-150000.73.2, 2.1.3-6.31:runc-1.2.6-slfo.1.1_1.1, …), 895 product×package rows across 316 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/baremetal-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.1/baremetal-os-container, … (316 product lines)): Fixed 370, Known Not Affected 311, Known Affected 213, First Fixed 1. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2024-45310/
ubuntu low CVE-2024-45310 low priority: Ubuntu including 2 source packages (runc, runc-app), 16 status rows across 9 suites (bionic, focal, jammy, noble, oracular, plucky, questing, upstream, xenial): needed 8, not-affected 4, ignored 2, released 2. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2024-45310

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2024-45310

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
linuxfoundation runc < 1.1.14 cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:runc:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
linuxfoundation runc 1.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:runc:1.2.0:rc1:*:*:*:*:*:*
linuxfoundation runc 1.2.0 cpe:2.3:a:linuxfoundation:runc:1.2.0:rc2:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2024-45310

cvelogic Threat Intelligence