CVE-2025-31133: CWE-61: UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following in opencontainers runc
Bulletin ID: AWS-2025-024 Scope: AWS Content Type: Important (requires attention) Publication Date: 2025/11/5 8:45 PM PDT CVE Identifiers: CVE-2025-31133, CVE-2025-52565, CVE-2025-52881 AWS is aware of recently disclosed security issues affecting the runc component of several open source container management systems (CVE-2025-31133, CVE-2025-52565, CVE-2025-52881) when launching new containers. AWS does not consider containers a security boundary, and does not utilize containers to isolate customers from each other. There is no cross-customer risk from these issues. AWS customers that utilize containers to isolate workloads within their own self-managed environments are strongly encouraged to contact their operating system vendor for any updates or instructions necessary to mitigate any potential concerns arising from these issues. With the exception of the AWS services listed below, no customer action is required to address this issue. As a best practice, AWS always recommends that you apply all security patches and software version updates. Affected services: Amazon Linux Bottlerocket Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) AWS Elastic Beanstalk Finch AWS Deep Learning AMI AWS Batch Amazon SageMaker
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
Several security issues in runc, an open source container runtime used by GKE, allow an attacker with deployment privileges to escape the container and gain root privileges on the host node. The vulnerabilities include CWE-61 (Unix Symbolic Link Following) and CWE-363 (Race Condition). These vulnerabilities affect GKE Standard clusters running Container-Optimized OS or Ubuntu node images and Autopilot clusters, but not GKE Sandbox or Windows node pools. Google has released patched GKE node pool versions for Container-Optimized OS (e.g., 1.34.1-gke.3355000 and later) and Ubuntu (1.33.5-gke.1791000 and later). For other GKE environments such as GKE on AWS, Azure, and GDC (bare metal), fixes are in development. The affected runc versions are those prior to 1.2.8. The CVSS 4.0 vector indicates local attack vector with low attack complexity, requiring privileges, user interaction, and results in high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability, scope, and security requirements.
Potential Impact
An attacker who can deploy a malicious container image on affected GKE clusters can exploit these vulnerabilities to break out of the container isolation and escalate privileges to root on the host node. This compromises the host system's security, potentially allowing full control over the node and access to other workloads running on it. The impact is high severity due to the ability to escalate privileges and escape container boundaries.
Mitigation Recommendations
Google has released patched GKE node pool versions for Container-Optimized OS and Ubuntu node images that fix these vulnerabilities. Users should upgrade their GKE node pools to the specified patched versions or later: for Container-Optimized OS, versions such as 1.34.1-gke.3355000 and later; for Ubuntu, version 1.33.5-gke.1791000 and later. For other GKE environments (GKE on AWS, Azure, GDC bare metal), fixes are in development and will be announced when available. Node pools using GKE Sandbox and Windows node pools are not affected. Applying these updates is the recommended remediation. Patch status is confirmed by the vendor advisory.
CVE-2025-31133: CWE-61: UNIX Symbolic Link (Symlink) Following in opencontainers runc
Description
Bulletin ID: AWS-2025-024 Scope: AWS Content Type: Important (requires attention) Publication Date: 2025/11/5 8:45 PM PDT CVE Identifiers: CVE-2025-31133, CVE-2025-52565, CVE-2025-52881 AWS is aware of recently disclosed security issues affecting the runc component of several open source container management systems (CVE-2025-31133, CVE-2025-52565, CVE-2025-52881) when launching new containers. AWS does not consider containers a security boundary, and does not utilize containers to isolate customers from each other. There is no cross-customer risk from these issues. AWS customers that utilize containers to isolate workloads within their own self-managed environments are strongly encouraged to contact their operating system vendor for any updates or instructions necessary to mitigate any potential concerns arising from these issues. With the exception of the AWS services listed below, no customer action is required to address this issue. As a best practice, AWS always recommends that you apply all security patches and software version updates. Affected services: Amazon Linux Bottlerocket Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS) AWS Elastic Beanstalk Finch AWS Deep Learning AMI AWS Batch Amazon SageMaker
CVSS v4.0
Score 7.3high
Affected software
pkg:github/opencontainers/runcRun on your own infrastructure? Check whether these packages are installed with threat-finder — our free open-source scanner.
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
Several security issues in runc, an open source container runtime used by GKE, allow an attacker with deployment privileges to escape the container and gain root privileges on the host node. The vulnerabilities include CWE-61 (Unix Symbolic Link Following) and CWE-363 (Race Condition). These vulnerabilities affect GKE Standard clusters running Container-Optimized OS or Ubuntu node images and Autopilot clusters, but not GKE Sandbox or Windows node pools. Google has released patched GKE node pool versions for Container-Optimized OS (e.g., 1.34.1-gke.3355000 and later) and Ubuntu (1.33.5-gke.1791000 and later). For other GKE environments such as GKE on AWS, Azure, and GDC (bare metal), fixes are in development. The affected runc versions are those prior to 1.2.8. The CVSS 4.0 vector indicates local attack vector with low attack complexity, requiring privileges, user interaction, and results in high impact on confidentiality, integrity, availability, scope, and security requirements.
Potential Impact
An attacker who can deploy a malicious container image on affected GKE clusters can exploit these vulnerabilities to break out of the container isolation and escalate privileges to root on the host node. This compromises the host system's security, potentially allowing full control over the node and access to other workloads running on it. The impact is high severity due to the ability to escalate privileges and escape container boundaries.
Mitigation Recommendations
Google has released patched GKE node pool versions for Container-Optimized OS and Ubuntu node images that fix these vulnerabilities. Users should upgrade their GKE node pools to the specified patched versions or later: for Container-Optimized OS, versions such as 1.34.1-gke.3355000 and later; for Ubuntu, version 1.33.5-gke.1791000 and later. For other GKE environments (GKE on AWS, Azure, GDC bare metal), fixes are in development and will be announced when available. Node pools using GKE Sandbox and Windows node pools are not affected. Applying these updates is the recommended remediation. Patch status is confirmed by the vendor advisory.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.2
- Assigner Short Name
- GitHub_M
- Date Reserved
- 2025-03-26T15:04:52.627Z
- Cvss Version
- 4.0
- State
- PUBLISHED
Threat ID: 690cf8a6e0be3996722ed9a0
Added to database: 11/06/2025, 19:36:06 UTC
Last enriched: 08/04/2026, 13:18:24 UTC
Last updated: 08/19/2026, 22:52:07 UTC
Views: 265
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