CVE-2024-11218 is a high-severity (CVSS 8.6) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in github.com/containers/buildah. A fix is available for github.com/containers/buildah — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Podman: buildah: container breakout by using --jobs=2 and a race condition when building a malicious containerfile
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2024-11218.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
Where this sits among everything scored
Real-World Exposure
github.com/containers/buildah🐹github.com/containers/buildah🐹github.com/containers/buildah🐹github.com/containers/buildahReal-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
Impact
With careful use of the --mount flag in RUN instructions in Containerfiles, and by using either multi-stage builds with use of concurrently-executing build stages (e.g., using the --jobs CLI flag) or multiple separate but concurrently-executing builds, a malicious Containerfile can be used to expose content from the build host to the command being run using the RUN instruction. This can be used to read or write contents using the privileges of the process which is performing the build. When that process is a root-owned podman system service which is provided for use by unprivileged users, this includes the ability to read and write contents which the client should not be allowed to read and write, including setuid executables in locations where they can be later accessed by unprivileged users.
Patches
Patches have been merged to the main branch, and will be added to upcoming releases on the release-1.38, release-1.37, release-1.35, and release-1.33 branches.
This addressed a number of Jira cards, but primarily https://issues.redhat.com/browse/RHEL-67616 and https://issues.redhat.com/browse/RHEL-67618, which were then vendored into Podman and backported into olde rbranches.
Workarounds
Mandatory access controls should limit the access of the process performing the build, on systems where they are enabled.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/containers/buildah | ≥ 1.38.0&&< 1.38.1 | 1.38.1go get github.com/containers/buildah@v1.38.1 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/containers/buildah | ≥ 1.37.0&&< 1.37.6 | 1.37.6go get github.com/containers/buildah@v1.37.6 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/containers/buildah | ≥ 1.35.0&&< 1.35.5 | 1.35.5go get github.com/containers/buildah@v1.35.5 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/containers/buildah | all versions | 1.33.12go get github.com/containers/buildah@v1.33.12 |
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/buildah, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/containers/buildah to 1.38.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-11218 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Close the privilege gap rather than the entry point: audit which accounts, roles and service identities can reach the affected operation, drop the component to the least privilege it actually needs, and review file and directory permissions created by earlier installs — a default left in place is what makes this reachable.
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.
This vulnerability marked as important severity rather than moderate because it allows a malicious Containerfile to exploit the `--mount` flag in `RUN` instructions to directly interact with the build host's filesystem. By leveraging this, an attacker can gain unauthorized access to sensitive files or inject malicious…
Mandatory access controls should limit the access of the process performing the build, on systems where they are enabled. SELinux enforces strict access controls by confining the build process (e.g., Podman) to specific domains like container_t. This prevents unauthorized access to sensitive host files and directories, even if a malicious Containerfile tries to exploit the --mount flag.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2024-11218 (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | container-tools:rhel8-8100020250124120243.afee755d | RHSA-2025:1372 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.6 Advanced Mission Critical Update Support | container-tools:rhel8-8060020250203202123.3b538bd8 | RHSA-2025:1207 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8.8 Extended Update Support | container-tools:rhel8-8080020250207173112.0f77c1b7 | RHSA-2025:1275 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | podman-4:5.2.2-13.el9_5 | RHSA-2025:0922 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | buildah-2:1.37.6-1.el9_5 | RHSA-2025:0923 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 Update Services for SAP Solutions | podman-2:4.2.0-6.el9_0 | RHSA-2025:1186 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.0 Update Services for SAP Solutions | buildah-1:1.26.9-1.el9_0 | RHSA-2025:1187 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.2 Extended Update Support | buildah-1:1.29.5-1.el9_2 | RHSA-2025:1295 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-11218 in your dependencies?
Find it across Go, including transitive dependencies.