CVE-2026-57231

Podman: Malformed Image can trick podman run into leaking host environment variables into the container

HIGH
7.5
CVSS Score
Published: June 26, 2026 at 04:29 PM UTC
Updated: October 25, 2026 at 05:10 PM UTC
2 products affected across 2 vendorsPodmanProject Podman

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Severity
HIGH7.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.4%
SSVC
No known exploit

Description

Podman is a tool for managing OCI containers and pods. From 1.8.1 until 5.8.4, a container image that contains a environment variable with just a key and no value can trick podman into passing that variable from the host into the container. This is made worse by the fact that using an asterisk (*) will cause podman to pass all host variables into the container. So essentially a malicious image can exfiltrate all podman environment variables that are set in the session from where the container is launched. This vulnerability is fixed in 5.8.4 and 6.0.0.

Affected

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

1.8.1 ≤ v < 5.8.46.0.06.0.0 rc1
Affected range stops below 5.8.4, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 5.8.4, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatablePartial impact

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

CVSS

7.5HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
NONE
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
NONE
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-200CWE-668

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