🛡️ CVE-2021-29136 — umoci

⚪ Unknown ✅ No Known Exploit CWE-20 OSV
N/A
CVSS Score
0 Low4 Medium7 High9 Critical10

Description

Improper input validation in umoci

Impact

umoci 0.4.6 and earlier can be tricked into modifying host files by

creating a malicious layer that has a symlink with the name "." (or

"/"). Because umoci deletes inodes if they change types, this results in

the rootfs directory being replaced with an attacker-controlled symlink.

Subsequent image layers will then be applied on top of the target of the

symlink (which could be any directory on the host filesystem the user

running umoci has access to).

While umoci does have defences against symlink-based attacks, they are

all implemented by resolving things relative to the rootfs directory --

if the rootfs itself is a symlink, umoci resolves it first.

This vulnerability affects both "umoci unpack" and "umoci raw unpack".

Patches

This issue has been patched in umoci 0.4.7, see the references section

for the specific commit which fixed this vulnerability.

Workarounds

Note that if you use umoci as an unprivileged user (using the --rootless

flag) then umoci will not be able to overwrite any files that your user

doesn't have access to. Other possible mitigations are to run umoci

under an LSM profile such as AppArmor or SELinux to restrict the level

of access it has outside of container image directories.

References

  • [oss-security public disclosure](https://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2021/04/06/2)
  • [patch](https://github.com/opencontainers/umoci/commit/d9efc31daf2206f7d3fdb839863cf7a576a2eb57)

Credits

Thanks to Robin Peraglie from Cure53 for discovering and reporting this

vulnerability.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory

  • Open an issue in <https://github.com/opencontainers/umoci>.
  • Email us at <[email protected]>.

How this vulnerability can be exploited

This issue can be reached with local access to the system, attack complexity is low, an attacker needs low-level privileges on the target. No user interaction is required. The scope is unchanged, so the impact stays within the vulnerable component. Rated impact: confidentiality none, integrity high, availability none.

Weakness class

CVE-2021-29136 is classified as CWE-20: Improper Input Validation. The application accepts input without checking that it has the expected form, so malformed values reach code that assumes they are well formed.

Affected software

CVE-2021-29136 is recorded against 1 package.

  • github.com/opencontainers/umoci

Timeline and source

Published on 15 February 2022 and last revised on 8 July 2026. No public exploit is currently recorded for this entry. A vendor advisory or fix has been published. Record sourced from OSV.

References

github.com (Web)
nvd.nist.gov (Advisory)
github.com (Web)
www.openwall.com (Web)

Details

Severity Unknown
CVSS Score N/A
CVSS Vector CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:H/A:N
CWE CWE-20
Public Exploit ✅ No
Source OSV
Published 2022-02-15
Updated 2026-08-12
Modified 2026-07-08

Affected Packages

Software From version Fixed in
github.com/opencontainers/umoci

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