GHSA-65gg-3w2w-hr4h is a high-severity (CVSS 8.3) CWE-295 vulnerability in github.com/containers/podman/v4. A fix is available for github.com/containers/podman/v4 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Podman Improper Certificate Validation; machine missing TLS verification
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 GHSA-65gg-3w2w-hr4h.
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
GHSA-65gg-3w2w-hr4h 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/containers/podman/v4🐹github.com/containers/podman/v5Real-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
The podman machine init command fails to verify the TLS certificate when downloading the VM images from an OCI registry (which it does by default since 5.0.0) allowing a possible Man In The Middle attack.
Patches
https://github.com/containers/podman/commit/726b506acc8a00d99f1a3a1357ecf619a1f798c3 Fixed in v5.5.2
Workarounds
Download the disk image manually via some other tool that verifies the TLS connection. Then pass the local image as file path (podman machine init --image ./somepath)
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/containers/podman/v4 | ≥ 4.8.0 | No fix |
| 🐹Go | github.com/containers/podman/v5 | all versions | 5.5.2go get github.com/containers/podman/v5@v5.5.2 |
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/v4, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
No patched version of github.com/containers/podman/v4 has shipped for GHSA-65gg-3w2w-hr4h yet. Where your build allows, override or pin the dependency away from the vulnerable range, and apply any maintainer-recommended mitigation.
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 GHSA-65gg-3w2w-hr4h can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-65gg-3w2w-hr4h. 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.
To exploit this flaw, a user needs to download an image from an untrusted OCI registry, specifically, an OCI registry with an invalid TLS certificate. This allows a remote attacker with access to the network path between the registry and the client to perform a Man In the Middle attack.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 10 | podman-6:5.4.0-12.el10_0 | RHSA-2025:10549 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 8 | container-tools:rhel8-8100020250625105344.afee755d | RHSA-2025:10551 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | podman-5:5.4.0-12.el9_6 | RHSA-2025:10550 |
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 Extended Update Support | podman-4:4.9.4-18.el9_4.2 | RHSA-2025:10668 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.16 | podman-4:4.9.4-14.rhaos4.16.el8 | RHSA-2025:9766 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.16 | rhcos-416.94.202507222002-0 | RHSA-2025:11681 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 | podman-5:5.2.2-8.rhaos4.17.el8 | RHSA-2025:10295 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 | rhcos-417.94.202507132309-0 | RHSA-2025:11359 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-65gg-3w2w-hr4h in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-65gg-3w2w-hr4h across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.