CVE-2023-25153

Service interruption via unbounded OCI metadata read

Published Feb 16, 2023 · Updated Mar 10, 2025

Resource exhaustion in containerd before 1.5.18 and 1.6.0 through 1.6.17 allows attackers to interrupt a node via an OCI image. images/archive/importer.go passes OCI layout and manifest JSON streams to onUntarJSON, which reads each entire file into memory before decoding it. Exploitation requires a crafted image to reach an authorized import operation and can exhaust memory until the node or runtime service becomes unavailable.

CVSS severity5.5
Medium
EPSS probability0.36%
Next 30 days · Sep 16, 2026
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Based on sourced intelligence
Hinoki checkNot available
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Summary

What happened

Resource exhaustion in containerd before 1.5.18 and 1.6.0 through 1.6.17 allows attackers to interrupt a node via an OCI image. images/archive/importer.go passes OCI layout and manifest JSON streams to onUntarJSON, which reads each entire file into memory before decoding it. Exploitation requires a crafted image to reach an authorized import operation and can exhaust memory until the node or runtime service becomes unavailable.

The record

CVE
CVE-2023-25153
Published
Feb 16, 2023
Updated
Mar 10, 2025
Vendor
containerd
Product
containerd
Classifications
CWE-400, T1499
Attack vector
local
Privileges
unauthenticated

Timeline

How it unfolded

  1. Feb 16, 2023CVE publishedPublication date reported by the CVE source.
  2. Mar 10, 2025Record updatedLatest update available in the CVE record.

Exploitability

Present is not the same as exploitable

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Is a vulnerable build present?

Compare these published version ranges with your installed build and any vendor patches.

  1. Affected versionversion=< 1.5.18
  2. Affected versionversion=>= 1.6.0, < 1.6.18

What conditions does exploitation require?

Attack vectorlocal
Required privilegesunauthenticated

What is affected?

containerd · containerdversion=< 1.5.18; version=>= 1.6.0, < 1.6.18

Published CVSS scores

5.5GitHubCVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

CVSS describes severity. EPSS estimates exploitation probability.

Attacks

What attackers are doing with it

Daily unique IPs observed by Shadowserver honeypots for known exploited vulnerabilities (KEVs). Missing observations do not establish an absence of attacks.

Daily unique IPsNo honeypot observations are available for this CVE in the selected window.

No observations available

Sep 10, 2026Sep 16, 2026
Latest reporting daySep 16, 2026
Latest daily unique IPsUnavailable
Prior 30-day averageUnavailable
SourceShadowserver honeypots (KEV)
Vectorlocal
Privilegesunauthenticated
Known exploitationUnconfirmed
Public exploitUnconfirmed

Weakness, pattern, technique

CWE-400Uncontrolled Resource Consumption
T1499Endpoint Denial of Service

Public exploit references

No public exploit references are available in this record.

Labels summarize the accepted research assessment. They do not indicate a test against your environment.

Technologies

Your stack

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Your stack

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