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CVE Record

CVE-2025-6032: Podman: podman missing tls verification

A flaw was found in Podman. The podman machine init command fails to verify the TLS certificate when downloading the VM images from an OCI registry. This issue results in a Man In The Middle attack.

HighCVSS 8.3Not KEV-listedUpdated
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Glexia's TakeAutomated analysishigh

Security readout for executives and security teams

Plain-English summary

Podman may fail to check the TLS certificate when `podman machine init` downloads VM images from an OCI registry. A person able to intercept that network traffic could substitute or tamper with the downloaded image, creating a high-impact supply-chain risk during machine setup.

Executive priority

Prioritize remediation for developer workstations, CI hosts, and OpenShift/RHEL environments that initialize Podman machines. The main business risk is trusted tooling accepting tampered VM images during setup.

Technical view

CVE-2025-6032 is a CWE-295 certificate validation flaw in Podman’s VM image download path for `podman machine init`. The CVSS 3.1 score is 8.3 with user interaction required and high confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact.

Likely exposure

Exposure is most likely where teams initialize Podman machines and fetch VM images over networks where interception is plausible. The bundle lists affected Red Hat Enterprise Linux, OpenShift Container Platform, Podman, and RHCOS package streams; non-Red Hat exposure is not fully detailed.

Exploitation context

The bundle describes a man-in-the-middle condition, but does not cite active exploitation. KEV is false, so treat this as high risk without claiming known exploitation in the wild.

Researcher notes

The key condition is missing TLS verification during OCI registry image download for Podman machine initialization. Source evidence supports MITM impact but does not provide exploit details or observed exploitation. Patch status should be confirmed from Red Hat advisories and the Podman GHSA/commit.

Mitigation direction

  • Review the Red Hat CVE page and relevant RHSA advisories for vendor-approved updates.
  • Update affected Podman, RHCOS, RHEL, and OpenShift packages through supported vendor channels.
  • Avoid running `podman machine init` on untrusted or interceptable networks until remediated.
  • Verify VM image provenance using vendor-recommended controls where available.

Validation and detection

  • Inventory systems using Podman and identify package versions matching the affected streams.
  • Check whether `podman machine init` is used in developer workstations or automation.
  • Confirm applicable Red Hat advisories are installed on RHEL and OpenShift assets.
  • Review build or provisioning logs for Podman machine image downloads.
Prepared
Confidence
high
Sources
12

Public sources used

Generated from the cited source records. This long-tail analysis has not been individually reviewed by a named human.

Potential ATT&CK relevance

Conservative CVE-to-ATT&CK context

These mappings and lookup hints may be relevant to the vulnerability behavior, CWE, affected product, or exposure path. Glexia-inferred context is not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, CWE, or CVE Program mapping.

ATT&CK lookup starting points

Use these exact CWE pages and searches to review the Glexia ATT&CK library from this CVE's weakness and description context.

cwe · low confidence lookup

CWE-295: Exact CWE lookup

Use the exact CWE identifier as the starting point before reviewing related ATT&CK behavior. Open the exact CWE lookup page first, then review the ATT&CK searches from that MITRE weakness context. This is a Glexia lookup hint, not an official ATT&CK mapping.

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description · low confidence lookup

Container behavior lookup

The affected technology mentions containers, so container-specific ATT&CK technique review may help. This is a Glexia inferred lookup path, not an official MITRE, ATT&CK, or CVE Program mapping.

Open ATT&CK lookup
cve · low confidence lookup

CVE-2025-6032 mapping review

Open the CVE-to-ATT&CK bridge for reviewed, inferred, or future official mappings tied to this CVE.

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Vulnerability profileCVE Program record
Severity
High
CVSS
8.3 (3.1)
Known Exploited
No
Published

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Official CVE source material

CNA and ADP enrichment extracted from CVE v5

These fields come from the CVE record and ADP containers, not from Glexia's Take. They preserve time-varying source decisions such as CISA SSVC, KEV status, CVSS metrics, and provider references.

1CVSS vectors
5Timeline events
1ADP providers
18Source links

SSVC decision data

CISA-ADPCISA Coordinator
Timestamp
Version
2.0.3
Exploitation: noneAutomatable: noTechnical Impact: total

CVSS vector scores

1 official score

We collect every scored CVSS vector available in the official CNA and ADP containers. When more than one version is present, the table keeps the source vectors side by side instead of collapsing them into the highest score.

ScoreVersionSeverityVectorExploitImpactSource
8.3CVSS 3.1HighCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H1.66redhat

Vulnerability scoring details

Base CVSS 3.1 score

8.3High
CVSS 3.1 vector shape for CVE-2025-6032Attack VectorAttack ComplexityPrivileges RequiredUser InteractionScopeConfidentiality ImpactIntegrity ImpactAvailability Impact

Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:N/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Attack Vector
NetworkAdjacentLocalPhysical
Attack Complexity
LowHigh
Privileges Required
NoneLowHigh
User Interaction
NoneRequired
Scope
ChangedUnchanged
Confidentiality Impact
HighLowNone
Integrity Impact
HighLowNone
Availability Impact
HighLowNone

Vulnerability timeline

Timeline events are normalized from CVE metadata, CNA source timelines, ADP timelines, and KEV metadata when present.

  1. Source timelineredhat

    Reported to Red Hat.

  2. CVE reservedCVE Program

    The CVE ID was reserved by the assigning CNA.

  3. Source timelineredhat

    Made public.

  4. CVE publishedCVE Program

    The CVE record was published.

  5. CVE updatedCVE Program

    The CVE record metadata indicates this as the latest update time.

ADP provider summaries

CISA-ADPCISA ADP Vulnrichment
other:ssvc

Source materials

Affected products

Products and packages named in the record

VendorProductVersion / packageStatus
Unknown vendorpodmanpodman, 4.8.0unaffected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 10podman, 6:5.4.0-12.el10_0affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 8container-tools:rhel8, 8100020250625105344.afee755daffected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9podman, 5:5.4.0-12.el9_6affected
Red HatRed Hat Enterprise Linux 9.4 Extended Update Supportpodman, 4:4.9.4-18.el9_4.2affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.16podman, 4:4.9.4-14.rhaos4.16.el8affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.16rhcos, 416.94.202507222002-0affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.17podman, 5:5.2.2-8.rhaos4.17.el8affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.17rhcos, 417.94.202507132309-0affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.18rhcos, 418.94.202507221927-0affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.18podman, 5:5.2.2-9.rhaos4.18.el9affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.19rhcos, 4.19.9.6.202507152218-0affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.19podman, 5:5.4.0-6.rhaos4.19.el9affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.20rhcos, 4.20.9.6.202509251656-0affected
Red HatRed Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4rhcosaffected
Weakness

CWE details

CWE-295

CWE links open Glexia weakness intelligence pages with official CWE context, developer remediation guidance, and related CVE mappings.

CWE-295 · source CWE mapping

Improper Certificate Validation

Improper Certificate Validation represents a recurring weakness pattern that can create exploitable paths when design, validation, or implementation controls are missing.

Open CWE intelligenceSame-CWE CVEs