CVE-2025-5054 is a race condition vulnerability (CWE-362) in Canonical's Apport crash reporting tool, versions up to and including 2.32.0. Apport is responsible for handling application crashes and forwarding core dumps for analysis. The vulnerability occurs due to improper synchronization in the function `_check_global_pid_and_forward`, which checks if a crashing process resides inside a container. This function was called before `consistency_checks`, which verifies if the crashing process has been replaced or reused. Because of this ordering, if a process crashes and its PID is quickly reused by a containerized process, Apport may mistakenly forward the core dump to the container, potentially leaking sensitive information from the original process. To address this, the order of calls was changed so that `consistency_checks` runs before `_check_global_pid_and_forward`. Additionally, since PID reuse race conditions cannot be reliably detected from userspace, Apport now only forwards crashes to containers if the kernel provides a pidfd (a file descriptor representing the PID) or if the crashing process is unprivileged (dump mode == 1). The vulnerability requires local attacker privileges and has a CVSS 3.1 score of 4.7 (medium severity), reflecting high attack complexity and limited scope. No known exploits are reported in the wild. This vulnerability primarily affects Linux systems using Apport for crash reporting, especially those employing containerization technologies such as Docker or LXC.

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-5054 is the potential leakage of sensitive information from containerized environments due to improper handling of crash reports. Organizations running Linux distributions that include Apport, particularly Ubuntu-based systems, and utilizing containers for application deployment or isolation, are at risk. The leakage could expose confidential process data, potentially including credentials or proprietary information, undermining confidentiality. Although the vulnerability does not affect integrity or availability directly, the exposure of sensitive data can facilitate further attacks or compliance violations under GDPR and other data protection regulations. The requirement for local access limits the attack surface to insiders or compromised accounts, but in multi-tenant or shared environments, this risk is significant. The medium severity rating indicates moderate urgency, but organizations with sensitive container workloads should prioritize remediation to prevent data leakage and maintain trust in container isolation.

To mitigate CVE-2025-5054, European organizations should: 1) Upgrade Apport to versions later than 2.32.0 where the fix has been applied, ensuring the call order of consistency checks and PID forwarding is corrected. 2) Configure kernel and container runtimes to support pidfd, enhancing reliable detection of PID reuse and preventing unsafe forwarding of crash dumps. 3) Restrict local user privileges and enforce strict access controls to minimize the risk of local attackers exploiting this vulnerability. 4) Monitor crash reporting and container logs for unusual forwarding behavior or unexpected core dump transmissions. 5) Employ container security best practices, including namespace isolation and limiting container privileges, to reduce the impact of potential leaks. 6) Consider disabling Apport or limiting its functionality in high-security environments where crash reporting is not essential. 7) Conduct regular audits of containerized workloads and crash handling configurations to ensure no regression or misconfiguration reintroduces the risk.