VulnerabilityPublished 18 Jul 2025

CVE-2025-54059: chainguard-dev melange · Incorrect Default Permissions

Affects chainguard-dev melangeSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 4.4 Medium : upgrade to 0.29.5 when convenient.

Data as of 26 Oct 2026, 10:12 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

4.4Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 4% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 0.29.5

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:L/A:L

Attack Vector: Local
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: Low
Availability: Low

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Local: The vulnerable component is not bound to the network stack and the attacker’s path is via read/write/execute capabilities. Either: the attacker exploits the vulnerability by accessing the target system locally (e.g., keyboard, console), or remotely (e.g., SSH); or the attacker relies on User Interaction by another person to perform actions required to exploit the vulnerability (e.g., tricking a legitimate user into opening a malicious document).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: Low: Modification of data is possible, but the attacker does not have control over the consequence of a modification, or the amount of modification is limited. The data modification does not have a direct, serious impact on the impacted component.
Availability: Low: Performance is reduced or there are interruptions in resource availability. Even if repeated exploitation of the vulnerability is possible, the attacker does not have the ability to completely deny service to legitimate users. The resources in the impacted component are either partially available all of the time, or fully available only some of the time, but overall there is no direct, serious consequence to the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 18 Jul 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors

A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 26 Oct 2026.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Upgrade chainguard-dev/melange to 0.29.5.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
GitHubchainguard-dev/melange`pkg:github/chainguard-dev/melange`Other threats	Affected <0.29.5 >=0.23.0	Fixed in 0.29.5

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

European organizations should upgrade melange to version 0.29.5 or later immediately to ensure the default file permissions for SBOM files are correctly set. Until the upgrade is applied, restrict local user permissions on build and runtime environments to trusted personnel only, minimizing the risk of unauthorized file tampering. Implement file integrity monitoring specifically targeting SBOM files to detect unauthorized changes promptly. Incorporate access control mechanisms such as mandatory access control (e.g., SELinux, AppArmor) to enforce stricter file permissions beyond default settings. Review and harden pipeline and container runtime security policies to limit write access to critical files. Additionally, integrate SBOM verification steps in CI/CD pipelines to detect inconsistencies or tampering early. Regularly audit user accounts and permissions on build systems to prevent privilege escalation or misuse. Finally, maintain up-to-date vulnerability management processes to quickly respond to new patches and advisories related to melange and related tooling.

Description

melange allows users to build apk packages using declarative pipelines. Starting in version 0.23.0 and prior to version 0.29.5, SBOM files generated by melange in apks had file system permissions mode 666. This potentially allows an unprivileged user to tamper with apk SBOMs on a running image, potentially confusing security scanners. An attacker could also perform a DoS under special circumstances. Version 0.29.5 fixes the issue.

Impact

For European organizations using melange within their software supply chain or containerized environments, this vulnerability poses a risk to the integrity and availability of SBOM data, which is critical for security auditing, compliance, and vulnerability management. Tampering with SBOM files could lead to inaccurate security assessments, allowing malicious code or vulnerable components to go undetected. This undermines trust in software provenance and could facilitate further attacks or compliance violations, especially under strict European regulations like GDPR and NIS Directive that emphasize security and transparency. The potential for denial of service, while conditional, could disrupt automated build or deployment pipelines, impacting operational continuity. Organizations relying on melange for APK packaging should consider this vulnerability a moderate risk, particularly if multiple users have local access to build or runtime environments. The lack of remote exploitability limits the threat surface, but insider threats or compromised accounts could leverage this vulnerability to degrade security controls or disrupt services.

CWE-276Incorrect Default Permissions (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumOWASP Top 10 A01:2025: Broken Access Control (opens in a new tab)
During installation, installed file permissions are set to allow anyone to modify those files.
Architecture and Design · Operation
The architecture needs to access and modification attributes for files to only those users who actually require those actions.
Architecture and Design · Separation of Privilege
Compartmentalize the system to have "safe" areas where trust boundaries can be unambiguously drawn. Do not allow sensitive data to go outside of the trust boundary and always be careful when interfacing with a compartment outside of the safe area.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Access Control (opens in a new tab)
Authorization Testing Automation (opens in a new tab)
Authorization (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.3.8 (opens in a new tab)
V13.4.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Accessing Functionality Not Properly Constrained by ACLs (opens in a new tab)
Directory Indexing (opens in a new tab)
Web Server Logs Tampering (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 18 Jul 2025, 16:01 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-276

Technical details

References

Community reviews

Related threats