Vulnerability in Alpinelinux Alpine Linux

CVE-2019-5021

Versions of the Official Alpine Linux Docker images (since v3.3) contain a NULL password for the `root` user. This vulnerability appears to be the result of a regression introduced in December of 2015. Due to the nature of this issue, systems deployed using affected versions of the Alpine Linux container which utilize Linux PAM, or some other mechanism which uses the system shadow file as an authentication database, may accept a NULL password for the `root` user.

EPSS: 0.063 (93.1th percentile) — read the EPSS interpretation.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.

Affected products

Weakness classification (CWE)

Public proof-of-concept exploits

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2019-5021?
CVE-2019-5021 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Alpinelinux Alpine Linux, classified under CWE-258. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2019-05-08.
How severe is CVE-2019-5021?
Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.
Is CVE-2019-5021 known to be exploited?
11 public proof-of-concept repositories are indexed. Not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.