A flaw was found in Podman.

CVE-2025-11395 is an arbitrary file-write flaw in Podman's podman load and podman volume import code paths. When a user feeds a specially crafted OCI tar archive to either command, the archive's malicious symlinks or path-traversal entries escape the intended extraction directory and write files anywhere the Podman process user can reach. Affected versions include Podman 5.4.2 through 5.8.6 and 6.0.x through 6.1.1. The underlying libraries — go.podman.io/image/v5 (< 5.39.3; 5.40.0–5.41.1) and go.podman.io/storage (< 1.62.1; 1.63.0–1.64.0) — carry the vulnerable tar-extraction routines used by storage/pkg/archive.UnpackLayer, ApplyLayer, and ApplyUncompressedLayer. Critically, registry-based image pulling (podman pull) is completely unaffected — only local archive import triggers the flaw.

Red Hat rates this MEDIUM / 5.5 and that broadly matches reality. The vendor CVSS uses AV:A/AC:L/PR:L which overstates network reachability; the GHSA advisory for the underlying library scores it 6.1 with AV:L/UI:R, which is closer to the truth because exploiting the bug requires someone to run podman load on a file the attacker controls. There is no daemon to probe, no listening port, no unauthenticated path. In rootless Podman — the default and recommended configuration — the blast radius is further bounded to the unprivileged user's writable directories. The vendor severity is directionally correct; a minor upward bump to 5.8 accounts for the HIGH integrity impact the GHSA notes and for CI/CD supply-chain scenarios where podman load is automated.

1. Enforce rootless Podman across all hosts — Rootless mode confines file writes to the unprivileged user's namespace, preventing system-level overwrite even if the vulnerability is triggered. Verify with podman info --format '{{.Host.Security.Rootless}}'. This is the single highest-impact mitigation and should already be your default. No mitigation SLA applies for MEDIUM — go straight to the 365-day remediation window, but this control should be validated immediately.
2. Keep SELinux in enforcing mode on RHEL/Fedora/CentOS — SELinux's container_t domain blocks writes to file contexts outside Podman's allowed set. Run getenforce to verify. Do not set permissive mode on container hosts.
3. Audit and restrict podman load / podman volume import usage — Create auditd rules: auditctl -a always,exit -F arch=b64 -S execve -F path=/usr/bin/podman -k podman_load. Alert on any podman load or podman volume import invocation, especially from CI/CD pipelines. Restrict these commands to trusted operators via sudoers or Polkit policies.
4. Validate container image provenance in CI/CD — Require Sigstore/cosign signature verification on all images before podman load. If your pipeline uses podman load from artifact caches, add cosign verify as a gating step. This blocks crafted archives from untrusted sources.
5. Upgrade to Podman 5.8.7+ or 6.1.2+ — The definitive fix. Podman 5.8.7 and 6.1.2 were released on 2026-09-16 with patched archive extraction. Under the noisgate remediation SLA for MEDIUM, apply the vendor patch within 365 days. If you have CI/CD pipelines running podman load from external sources, prioritize those hosts.

Run this script on each target host where Podman is installed. No special privileges required — it just parses podman --version. Example: chmod +x check_cve_2025_11395.sh && ./check_cve_2025_11395.sh or specify a custom binary path: ./check_cve_2025_11395.sh /usr/local/bin/podman.

#!/usr/bin/env bash
# CVE-2025-11395 Checker — Podman arbitrary file write via crafted tar archive
# Fixed in: Podman 5.8.7+ (5.x branch), 6.1.2+ (6.x branch)
# Affected: Podman 5.4.2–5.8.6, 6.0.0–6.1.1
# Exit codes: 0 = PATCHED, 1 = VULNERABLE, 2 = UNKNOWN

set -euo pipefail

PODMAN_BIN="${1:-podman}"

if ! command -v "$PODMAN_BIN" &>/dev/null; then
    echo "UNKNOWN — podman binary not found at '$PODMAN_BIN'"
    exit 2
fi

VERSION=$("$PODMAN_BIN" --version 2>/dev/null | grep -oP '\d+\.\d+\.\d+' | head -1)

if [[ -z "$VERSION" ]]; then
    echo "UNKNOWN — could not parse podman version"
    exit 2
fi

MAJOR=$(echo "$VERSION" | cut -d. -f1)
MINOR=$(echo "$VERSION" | cut -d. -f2)
PATCH=$(echo "$VERSION" | cut -d. -f3)

echo "Detected Podman version: $VERSION"

if (( MAJOR < 5 )); then
    echo "UNKNOWN — Podman $VERSION predates known affected range; verify manually"
    exit 2
elif (( MAJOR == 5 )); then
    if (( MINOR < 4 )); then
        echo "UNKNOWN — Podman $VERSION may predate the vulnerable code; verify manually"
        exit 2
    elif (( MINOR < 8 )); then
        echo "VULNERABLE — Podman $VERSION is affected (fix: >= 5.8.7)"
        exit 1
    elif (( MINOR == 8 && PATCH < 7 )); then
        echo "VULNERABLE — Podman $VERSION is affected (fix: >= 5.8.7)"
        exit 1
    else
        echo "PATCHED — Podman $VERSION includes the fix (>= 5.8.7)"
        exit 0
    fi
elif (( MAJOR == 6 )); then
    if (( MINOR < 1 )); then
        echo "VULNERABLE — Podman $VERSION is affected (fix: >= 6.1.2)"
        exit 1
    elif (( MINOR == 1 && PATCH < 2 )); then
        echo "VULNERABLE — Podman $VERSION is affected (fix: >= 6.1.2)"
        exit 1
    else
        echo "PATCHED — Podman $VERSION includes the fix (>= 6.1.2)"
        exit 0
    fi
elif (( MAJOR > 6 )); then
    echo "PATCHED — Podman $VERSION is above all affected versions"
    exit 0
fi

1. GHSA-3gcv-x57j-xqxv — container-libs advisory for CVE-2025-11395
2. GHSA-mmq6-9mjh-hvq3 — container-libs storage advisory (related tar extraction flaw)
3. Ubuntu Security — CVE-2025-11395
4. OSV — DEBIAN-CVE-2025-11395
5. Podman Releases (5.8.7 and 6.1.2 fix notes)
6. OpenCVE — CVE-2025-11395 Details
7. FIRST EPSS — Exploit Prediction Scoring System