GHSA-hj57-j5cw-2mwp
MEDIUMIgnition 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.
Blast Radius
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 | 2.14.0 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/coreos/ignition | all versions | 2.14.0 |
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. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
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 pinpoints whether GHSA-hj57-j5cw-2mwp is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
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.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-hj57-j5cw-2mwp in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-hj57-j5cw-2mwp across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.