CVE-2025-9039: CWE-277: Insecure Inherited Permissions, CWE-648: Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs in Amazon ECS
Bulletin ID: AWS-2025-018 Scope: AWS Content Type: Important (requires attention) Publication Date: 2025/08/14 09:15 PM PDT Description: Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) is a fully managed container orchestration service that enables customers to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications. Amazon ECS container agent provides an introspection API that provides information about the overall state of the Amazon ECS agent and the container instances. We identified CVE-2025-9039, an issue in the Amazon ECS agent. Under certain conditions, this issue could allow an introspection server to be accessed off-host by another instance if the instances are in the same security group or if their security groups allow inbound connections to the introspection server port. This issue does not affect instances where the option to allow off-host access to the introspection server is set to "false". Affected versions: ECS Agent versions 0.0.3 through 1.97.0
AI Analysis
Technical Summary
This vulnerability involves insecure inherited permissions and incorrect use of privileged APIs in the Amazon ECS agent. Specifically, the introspection server running on port 51678 can be accessed by other ECS instances sharing the same security group or with permissive security group rules, allowing off-host access that should be restricted. The flaw is addressed in ECS agent version 1.97.1. Instances configured to disallow off-host introspection server access are not affected. The vulnerability has a CVSS 4.0 score of 5.3, indicating medium severity.
Potential Impact
An attacker with access to an ECS instance within the same security group or with network access to port 51678 could connect to the introspection server, potentially exposing sensitive introspection data or functionality. This could lead to unauthorized information disclosure or misuse of privileged APIs. The impact is limited by network configuration and can be fully mitigated by upgrading the ECS agent or restricting network access to the introspection server port.
Mitigation Recommendations
A fix is available in Amazon ECS agent version 1.97.1. Customers should upgrade to this version to remediate the vulnerability. For those unable to upgrade immediately, restricting inbound access to port 51678 via EC2 security group rules effectively mitigates the risk. Instances configured to disallow off-host introspection server access are not vulnerable, so verifying this configuration can also reduce exposure.
CVE-2025-9039: CWE-277: Insecure Inherited Permissions, CWE-648: Incorrect Use of Privileged APIs in Amazon ECS
Description
Bulletin ID: AWS-2025-018 Scope: AWS Content Type: Important (requires attention) Publication Date: 2025/08/14 09:15 PM PDT Description: Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS) is a fully managed container orchestration service that enables customers to deploy, manage, and scale containerized applications. Amazon ECS container agent provides an introspection API that provides information about the overall state of the Amazon ECS agent and the container instances. We identified CVE-2025-9039, an issue in the Amazon ECS agent. Under certain conditions, this issue could allow an introspection server to be accessed off-host by another instance if the instances are in the same security group or if their security groups allow inbound connections to the introspection server port. This issue does not affect instances where the option to allow off-host access to the introspection server is set to "false". Affected versions: ECS Agent versions 0.0.3 through 1.97.0
CVSS v4.0
Score 5.3medium
Affected software
Weaknesses
AI-Powered Analysis
Machine-generated threat intelligence
Technical Analysis
This vulnerability involves insecure inherited permissions and incorrect use of privileged APIs in the Amazon ECS agent. Specifically, the introspection server running on port 51678 can be accessed by other ECS instances sharing the same security group or with permissive security group rules, allowing off-host access that should be restricted. The flaw is addressed in ECS agent version 1.97.1. Instances configured to disallow off-host introspection server access are not affected. The vulnerability has a CVSS 4.0 score of 5.3, indicating medium severity.
Potential Impact
An attacker with access to an ECS instance within the same security group or with network access to port 51678 could connect to the introspection server, potentially exposing sensitive introspection data or functionality. This could lead to unauthorized information disclosure or misuse of privileged APIs. The impact is limited by network configuration and can be fully mitigated by upgrading the ECS agent or restricting network access to the introspection server port.
Mitigation Recommendations
A fix is available in Amazon ECS agent version 1.97.1. Customers should upgrade to this version to remediate the vulnerability. For those unable to upgrade immediately, restricting inbound access to port 51678 via EC2 security group rules effectively mitigates the risk. Instances configured to disallow off-host introspection server access are not vulnerable, so verifying this configuration can also reduce exposure.
Technical Details
- Data Version
- 5.1
- Assigner Short Name
- AMZN
- Date Reserved
- 2025-08-14T13:33:16.484Z
- Cvss Version
- 4.0
- State
- PUBLISHED
Threat ID: 689e0fb1ad5a09ad005cb829
Added to database: 08/14/2025, 16:32:49 UTC
Last enriched: 06/05/2026, 19:28:32 UTC
Last updated: 08/19/2026, 18:04:43 UTC
Views: 249
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