CVE-2023-25153 containerd OCI image importer memory exhaustion
A maliciously crafted OCI image can cause memory exhaustion and denial of service in containerd during import.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Not needed
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2023-25153?
CVE-2023-25153 is a medium-severity denial of service vulnerability in containerd, published on 16 Feb 2023. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
containerd is an open source container runtime. Before versions 1.6.18 and 1.5.18, when importing an OCI image, there was no limit on the number of bytes read for certain files. A maliciously crafted image with a large file where a limit was not applied could cause a denial of service. This bug has been fixed in containerd 1.6.18 and 1.5.18. Users should update to these versions to resolve the issue. As a workaround, ensure that only trusted images are used and that only trusted users have permissions to import images.
Weakness: CWE-770
Which versions are affected by CVE-2023-25153?
5 open source packages ship an affected version, including github.com/containerd/containerd. It affects 1 product.
| Package | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
github.com/containerd/containerd Go | All versions | 1.5.18, 1.6.18 |
github.com/containerd/containerd Go | All versions | 1.5.18 |
github.com/containerd/containerd Go | All versions | 1.5.18 |
github.com/containerd/containerd Go | From 1.6.0 | 1.6.18 |
github.com/containerd/containerd Go | From 1.6.0 | 1.6.18 |
Products include Linuxfoundation Containerd.
How do I fix CVE-2023-25153?
Upgrade github.com/containerd/containerd to a fixed version for your release line: 1.5.18 or 1.6.18.
Upgrade, then put limits on request size, rate and nesting depth so one client cannot exhaust the service. More about Denial of service.
Is CVE-2023-25153 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2023-25153 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in containerd
- CVE-2026-53488 containerd CRI — image-config `LABEL` flows to restart-monitor `binary://` logger: host-root command execution from an image pull
- CVE-2026-53492 containerd CRI checkpoint restore CDI annotation smuggling
- CVE-2026-53489 containerd: Arbitrary host CRI log file read via symlink following in CRI checkpoint restore
- CVE-2025-47290 Containerd vulnerable to host filesystem access during image unpack
- CVE-2026-46680 containerd user ID handling bypass allows runAsNonRoot evasion
Sources
Also known as AZL-13571, AZL-13584, AZL-13674, AZL-35000, CLEANSTART-2025-OB15168, DEBIAN-CVE-2023-25153 and 3 more.