CVE-2024-40635 is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.6) CWE-190 vulnerability in github.com/containerd/containerd/v2. A fix is available for github.com/containerd/containerd/v2 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
containerd has an integer overflow in User ID handling
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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-2024-40635.
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-2024-40635 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/containerd/containerd/v2🐹github.com/containerd/containerd🐹github.com/containerd/containerdReal-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
containerd is an open-source container runtime. A bug was found in containerd prior to versions 1.6.38, 1.7.27, and 2.0.4 where containers launched with a User set as a UID:GID larger than the maximum 32-bit signed integer can cause an overflow condition where the container ultimately runs as root (UID 0). This could cause unexpected behavior for environments that require containers to run as a non-root user. This bug has been fixed in containerd 1.6.38, 1.7.27, and 2.04. As a workaround, ensure that only trusted images are used and that only trusted users have permissions to import images.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/containerd/containerd/v2 | all versions | 2.0.4go get github.com/containerd/containerd/v2@v2.0.4 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/containerd/containerd | ≥ 1.7.0-beta.0&&< 1.7.27 | 1.7.27go get github.com/containerd/containerd@v1.7.27 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/containerd/containerd | all versions | 1.6.38go get github.com/containerd/containerd@v1.6.38 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/containerd/containerd/v2, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/containerd/containerd/v2 to 2.0.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2024-40635 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-2024-40635 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2024-40635. 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 OpenShift GitOps and OpenShift Container Platform deployments, image sources are controlled through OpenShift's Image configuration and RBAC policies. Administrators can restrict image imports to trusted registries using allowedRegistriesForImport and registrySources configuration.In typical GitOps…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4.22 | odf4/cephcsi-rhel9:1782932114 | RHSA-2026:37387 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2024-40635 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2024-40635 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.