CVE-2025-32438

Local privilege escalation in make-initrd-ng

HIGH
8.8
CVSS Score
Published: April 15, 2025 at 07:57 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 09:11 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorNixpkgs

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Severity
HIGH8.8
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.2%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

make-initrd-ng is a tool for copying binaries and their dependencies. Local privilege escalation affecting all NixOS users. With systemd.shutdownRamfs.enable enabled (the default) a local user is able to create a program that will be executed by root during shutdown. Patches exist for NixOS 24.11 and 25.05 / unstable. As a workaround, set systemd.shutdownRamfs.enable = false;.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

v < b17590193d8e5697000c23c66afcf11e1753734dv < fbf76bf72b161b9f4ab97704a8258776d5f3ffba

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet, and no fixed version or vendor advisory is recorded against it.

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

8.8HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
LOCAL
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusDEFERRED
CWE
CWE-378CWE-379

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