CVE-2025-5187 | Nodes can delete themselves by adding an OwnerReference

A vulnerability exists in the NodeRestriction admission controller in Kubernetes clusters where node users can delete their corresponding node object by patching themselves with an OwnerReference to a cluster-scoped resource. If the OwnerReference resource does not exist or is subsequently deleted, the given node object will be deleted via garbage collection.

Published: 2025-08-27 Last update: 2026-04-15 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Deferred，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2025-5187 is rated Low Risk (28.5/100): CVSS Medium severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.02%). 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-2025-5187

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 0.05% 0.02% -0.03%
2 2025-11-18 0.02% 0.05% +0.04%
3 2025-08-28 — 0.02% —

Full EPSS history (3 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2025-5187

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
6.7 3.1 MEDIUM
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L Click to expand
Attack vector (AV:N)
Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
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:H)
They need powerful rights—admin, root, or similar—before this pays off.
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:L)
Might cause slowdowns, glitches, or partial disruption—not a full brick.
 1.2 5.5 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2025-5187

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2025-5187

GHSA-4x4m-3c2p-qppc · Severity: medium · Ecosystem: go — Kubernetes Nodes can delete themselves by adding an OwnerReference

OS Trackers for CVE-2025-5187

vendor priority summary link
debian not yet assigned CVE-2025-5187 not yet assigned priority: Debian including 1 source packages (kubernetes), 5 status rows across 5 suites (bookworm, bullseye, forky, sid, trixie): resolved 5. https://security-tracker.debian.org/tracker/CVE-2025-5187
redhat medium — https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-5187
suse medium CVE-2025-5187 severity moderate: SUSE including 78 source package names (govulncheck-vulndb-0.0.20250918T182144-1.1, kubernetes, …), 291 product×package rows across 44 product lines (Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/baremetal-os-container, Container suse/sl-micro/6.0/base-os-container, … (44 product lines)): Known Not Affected 265, Fixed 26. https://www.suse.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-5187/
ubuntu medium CVE-2025-5187 medium priority: Ubuntu including 1 source packages (kubernetes), 5 status rows across 5 suites (focal, jammy, noble, plucky, upstream): not-affected 3, DNE 1, needs-triage 1. https://ubuntu.com/security/CVE-2025-5187

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2025-5187

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
No affected products in dataset.

References for CVE-2025-5187

cvelogic Threat Intelligence