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
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-2024-11218 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/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
A vulnerability was found in podman build and buildah. This issue occurs in a container breakout by using --jobs=2 and a race condition when building a malicious Containerfile. SELinux might mitigate it, but even with SELinux on, it still allows the enumeration of files and directories on the host.
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
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-2024-11218 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-11218. 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.
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…
| 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?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-11218 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.