CVE-2019-19921 is a high-severity (CVSS 7) CWE-706 vulnerability in github.com/opencontainers/runc. O3 Security confirms whether CVE-2019-19921 is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
opencontainers runc contains procfs race condition with a shared volume mount
Real-World Exposure
github.com/opencontainers/runcReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
runc through 1.0.0-rc9 has Incorrect Access Control leading to Escalation of Privileges, related to libcontainer/rootfs_linux.go. To exploit this, an attacker must be able to spawn two containers with custom volume-mount configurations, and be able to run custom images. (This vulnerability does not affect Docker due to an implementation detail that happens to block the attack.)
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/opencontainers/runc | all versions | 1.0.0-rc9.0.20200122160610-2fc03cc11c77 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/opencontainers/runc. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/opencontainers/runc to 1.0.0-rc9.0.20200122160610-2fc03cc11c77 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2019-19921 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 pinpoints whether CVE-2019-19921 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to CVE-2019-19921. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
For Red Hat OpenStack Platform, because runc is not directly used by the director-operator, no update will be provided at this time for the operator containers.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2019-19921 in your dependencies?
O3 detects CVE-2019-19921 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.