CVE-2020-14370 — v2
MEDIUMCVE-2020-14370 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.3) CWE-212 vulnerability in github.com/containers/podman/v2. A fix is available for github.com/containers/podman/v2 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Information disclosure in podman
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2020-14370 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 377,333 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
github.com/containers/podman/v2Real-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
An information disclosure vulnerability was found in containers/podman in versions before 2.0.5. When using the deprecated Varlink API or the Docker-compatible REST API, if multiple containers are created in a short duration, the environment variables from the first container will get leaked into subsequent containers. An attacker who has control over the subsequent containers could use this flaw to gain access to sensitive information stored in such variables.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/containers/podman/v2 | all versions | 2.0.5go get github.com/containers/podman/v2@v2.0.5 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/containers/podman/v2, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/containers/podman/v2 to 2.0.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2020-14370 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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2020-14370 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2020-14370. 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.
Whilst OpenShift Container Platform (OCP) does include podman, the Varlink API is not enabled by default. However, as it is trivial to activate this feature, OCP has been marked as affected. OCP 3.11 has previously packaged podman, but instead now relies on the version from rhel-extra.The older version previously…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 7 Extras | podman-0:1.6.4-26.el7_9 | RHSA-2020:5056 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | container-tools:rhel8-8030120210208205200.c127ee91 | RHSA-2021:0531 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 | podman-0:1.9.3-3.rhaos4.6.el8 | RHSA-2020:4297 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2020-14370 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2020-14370 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.