CVE-2025-62877 — harvester-installer
CRITICALCVE-2025-62877 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.8) CWE-1188 vulnerability in github.com/harvester/harvester-installer. No vendor fix is recorded yet; mitigation options are listed below.
Harvest may expose OS default ssh login password via SUSE Virtualization Interactive Installer
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- 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-2025-62877.
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-2025-62877 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 378,156 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/harvester/harvester-installer🐹github.com/harvester/harvester-installerReal-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
Projects using the SUSE Virtualization (Harvester) environment are vulnerable to this exploit if they are using the 1.5.x or 1.6.x interactive installer to either create a new cluster or add new hosts to an existing cluster. The environment is not affected if the PXE boot mechanism is utilized along with the [Harvester configuration](https://docs.harvesterhci. io/v1.7/install/harvester-configuration) setup.
A critical vulnerability has been identified within the SUSE Virtualization interactive installer. This vulnerability allows an attacker to gain unauthorized network access to the host via a remote shell (SSH).
The SUSE Virtualization operating system includes a default administrative login credential intended solely for out-of-band cluster management tasks (for example, perform troubleshooting, device management and system recovery over serial ports). When the interactive installer is used to create or expand a cluster, the installer enables the host's networking functions before the default password is reset. This presents a window of opportunity for an attacker to exploit the default password to gain unauthorized access to the host via SSH.
Please consult the associated MITRE ATT&CK - Technique - Default Credentials for further information about this category of attack.
Patches
This vulnerability is addressed by updating the interactive installer to allow the user to reset the OS default login password, before proceeding to other system configuration screens like the host networking screen and before network connectivity for remote access to the host is actually enabled.
v1.7.0 and later include the necessary security fixes.
Workarounds
For environments that are dependent on the SUSE Virtualization 1.5 and 1.6 interactive installer, users should upgrade the clusters to SUSE Virtualization 1.7 and use the 1.7 installer to manage hosts. These versions allow users to reset the operating system's default administrative password before proceeding to other system configuration screens and before enabling network connectivity for remote host access.
Projects can also perform one of the following workarounds to mitigate the risk:
- If upgrading to v1.7.x is not an option, use the PXE boot mechanism along with a configuration file to define a secure password.
- Apply network security controls to limit access to the server from any untrusted location during bootstrapping. For example, ensure that port 22 is not exposed to the public internet until at least the default login password is changed to a secure value.
Resources
If users have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Reach out to the SUSE Rancher Security team for security related inquiries.
- Open an issue in the Harvester repository.
- Verify with the support matrix and product support lifecycle.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/harvester/harvester-installer | ≥ 1.6.0 | No fix |
| 🐹Go | github.com/harvester/harvester-installer | ≥ 1.5.0 | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/harvester/harvester-installer, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Remediation status
No patched version of github.com/harvester/harvester-installer has shipped for CVE-2025-62877 yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
Mitigate without a patch
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-2025-62877 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2025-62877. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-62877 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2025-62877 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.