GHSA-hj57-j5cw-2mwp is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-863 vulnerability in github.com/coreos/ignition/v2. A fix is available for github.com/coreos/ignition/v2 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Ignition config accessible to unprivileged software on VMware
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-hj57-j5cw-2mwp 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 378,567 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/coreos/ignition/v2🐹github.com/coreos/ignitionReal-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
Unprivileged software in VMware VMs, including software running in unprivileged containers, can retrieve an Ignition config stored in a hypervisor guestinfo variable or OVF environment. If the Ignition config contains secrets, this can result in the compromise of sensitive information.
Patches
Ignition 2.14.0 and later adds a new systemd service, ignition-delete-config.service, that deletes the Ignition config from supported hypervisors (currently VMware and VirtualBox) during the first boot. This ensures that unprivileged software cannot retrieve the Ignition config from the hypervisor.
If you have external tooling that requires the Ignition config to remain accessible in VM metadata after provisioning, and your Ignition config does not include sensitive information, you can prevent Ignition 2.14.0 and later from deleting the config by masking ignition-delete-config.service. For example:
{
"ignition": {
"version": "3.0.0"
},
"systemd": {
"units": [
{
"name": "ignition-delete-config.service",
"mask": true
}
]
}
}
Workarounds
Avoid storing secrets in Ignition configs. In addition to VMware, many cloud platforms allow unprivileged software in a VM to retrieve the Ignition config from a networked cloud metadata service. While platform-specific mitigation is possible, such as firewall rules that prevent access to the metadata service, it's best to store secrets in a dedicated platform such as Hashicorp Vault.
Advice to Linux distributions
Linux distributions that ship Ignition should ensure the new ignition-delete-config.service is installed and enabled by default.
In addition, we recommend shipping a service similar to ignition-delete-config.service that runs when existing machines are upgraded, similar to the one in https://github.com/coreos/fedora-coreos-config/pull/1738. Consider giving your users advance notice of this change, and providing instructions for masking ignition-delete-config.service on existing nodes if users have tooling that requires the Ignition config to remain accessible in VM metadata.
References
For more information, see #1300 and #1350.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory, open an issue in Ignition or email the CoreOS development mailing list.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/coreos/ignition/v2 | all versions | 2.14.0go get github.com/coreos/ignition/v2@v2.14.0 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/coreos/ignition | all versions | 2.14.0go get github.com/coreos/ignition@v2.14.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/coreos/ignition/v2, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/coreos/ignition/v2 to 2.14.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-hj57-j5cw-2mwp 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 GHSA-hj57-j5cw-2mwp can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-hj57-j5cw-2mwp. 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.
RHCOS may be less impacted than other distros since OCP's default Ignition config only contains a pointer to a config served by the Machine Config Server, and OCP prevents containers from accessing the MCS directly. So, the scope on RHCOS should be limited to any VMware users who manually modify the pointer config…
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat Enterprise Linux 9 | ignition-0:2.14.0-1.el9 | RHSA-2022:8126 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.11 | ignition-0:2.14.0-3.rhaos4.11.el8 | RHSA-2022:5068 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-hj57-j5cw-2mwp in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-hj57-j5cw-2mwp across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.