CVE-2024-3056: Podman: kernel: containers in shared ipc namespace are vulnerable to denial of service attack
A flaw was found in Podman. This issue may allow an attacker to create a specially crafted container that, when configured to share the same IPC with at least one other container, can create a large number of IPC resources in /dev/shm. The malicious container will continue to exhaust resources until it is out-of-memory (OOM) killed. While the malicious container's cgroup will be removed, the IPC resources it created are not. Those resources are tied to the IPC namespace that will not be removed until all containers using it are stopped, and one non-malicious container is holding the namespace open. The malicious container is restarted, either automatically or by attacker control, repeating the process and increasing the amount of memory consumed. With a container configured to restart always, such as podman run --restart=always, this can result in a memory-based denial of service of the system.
Other sources
Summary: We received a report of an attack vector on containers which share an IPC namespace (definitely Podman, but likely also applicable to Kubernetes, Docker, and other container runtimes). At least two containers are configured with a shared IPC namespace and a cgroup limiting memory. One of those containers is malicious, and contains a binary which creates a large number of IPC resources in /dev/shm, and continues doing so until it is OOM killed. The malicious container is now dead, its cgroup removed, but the IPC resources it created are not; they are tied to the IPC namespace that will not be removed until all containers using it are stopped, and one non-malicious container is holding the namespace open. The malicious container is restarted (either automatically or by attacker control), repeating the process and increasing the amount of memory consumed. With a container configured to restart always (e.g. podman run --restart=always) this results in a memory-based denial of service of the system.
Podman Version: Version 5.0.0-dev and before
— Red Hat
Affected Software
Event History
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the severity of CVE-2024-3056?
CVE-2024-3056 has been classified as a high severity vulnerability due to its potential for resource exhaustion.
How do I fix CVE-2024-3056?
To mitigate CVE-2024-3056, update Podman to a version greater than 5.2.0.
What software is affected by CVE-2024-3056?
CVE-2024-3056 affects Podman versions up to and including 5.2.0.
Can CVE-2024-3056 be exploited remotely?
CVE-2024-3056 requires access to the same IPC namespace, so it typically cannot be exploited remotely.
What impact does CVE-2024-3056 have on container deployments?
CVE-2024-3056 may cause significant denial-of-service issues by exhausting IPC resources in shared environments.