Podman Improper Certificate Validation; machine missing TLS verification

Description

Impact

The podman machine init command fails to verify the TLS certificate when downloading the VM images from an OCI registry (which it does by default since 5.0.0) allowing a possible Man In The Middle attack.

Patches

https://github.com/containers/podman/commit/726b506acc8a00d99f1a3a1357ecf619a1f798c3
Fixed in v5.5.2

Workarounds

Download the disk image manually via some other tool that verifies the TLS connection. Then pass the local image as file path (podman machine init --image ./somepath)

Basic information

Type
reviewed
Severity
high
Advisory on GitHub
Open advisory ↗
Repository advisory
Open repository advisory ↗
Source code
Browse source ↗
Published (advisory)
2025-06-25 21:57:00 UTC
Updated
2025-11-29 03:30:16 UTC
GitHub reviewed
2025-06-25 21:57:00 UTC
NVD published
2025-06-24

EPSS Score

Score Percentile
0.07% 22.53%

CVSS Scores

Base score Version Severity Vector
8.4 3.1
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H 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:H)
Even with access, the exploit needs extra luck, timing, or a fussy environment to actually work.
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: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.

Identifiers

CWEs

CWE id Name
CWE-295 Improper Certificate Validation

Credits

  • Luap99 (reporter)

Affected packages (2)

Vulnerable version ranges and first patched releases as published by GitHub.

Ecosystem Package Vulnerable range First patched Vulnerable functions
go github.com/containers/podman/v5 < 5.5.2 5.5.2
go github.com/containers/podman/v4 >= 4.8.0, <= 4.9.5

References

cvelogic Threat Intelligence