Incomplete fix for CVE-2025-6020
CVE: CVE-2025-8941
Component: linux-pam
CWE: CWE-22
Severity: Important
CVSS v3: 7.9/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Release date: 2025-08-13T00:00:00+00:00

A flaw was found in linux-pam. The pam_namespace module may improperly handle user-controlled paths, allowing local users to exploit symlink attacks and race conditions to elevate their privileges to root. This CVE provides a "complete" fix for CVE-2025-6020.

Statement: This vulnerability in pam_namespace is rated Important because it allows a local, unprivileged user to escalate privileges to root by exploiting symlink attacks or race conditions in polyinstantiated directories under their control. Successful exploitation requires only the ability to create and manipulate filesystem paths in such directories, without the need for special capabilities or kernel-level vulnerabilities. In multi-user environments—such as shared systems, terminal servers, or certain container deployments, an unprotected or misconfigured pam_namespace configuration can serve as a single point of compromise. Privilege escalation flaws of this nature may also be chained with other vulnerabilities to maintain persistence or evade detection, further increasing the overall impact.

Remediation:
Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

For details on how to apply this update, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258
The Red Hat Web Terminal 1.11 on RHEL 9 container images provided by this update
can be downloaded from the Red Hat Container Registry at
registry.access.redhat.com. Installation instructions for your platform are
available at Red Hat Container Catalog (see References).

Dockerfiles and scripts should be amended either to refer to this new image
specifically, or to the latest image generally.
Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata
relevant to your system have been applied.

For details on how to apply this update, refer to:

https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258
Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata relevant to your
system have been applied. For details on how to apply this update, refer to:
  
https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/latest/updating/updating_a_cluster/updating-cluster-cli.html
The containers required to run Discovery can be installed through discovery-installer
RPM. See the official documentation for more details.
The Insights proxy container image provided here is downloaded by the Red Hat
Insights proxy product RPM.

Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata relevant to
your system have been applied.
A new release of Red Hat OpenShift sandboxed containers.
Before applying this update, make sure all previously released errata relevant to your system have been applied.

The steps to apply the upgraded images are different depending on the installation plan approval policy you used
when installing the cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift.

- If the approval policy is set to `Automatic`, then the Operator will be upgraded automatically when there is a
new version of the Operator. No further action is required to upgrade. This is the default setting.

- If you changed the approval policy to `Manual`, then you must manually approve the upgrade to the Operator.

See https://docs.openshift.com/container-platform/latest/security/cert_manager_operator/index.html for additional
information.
Disable the `pam_namespace` module if it is not essential for your environment, or carefully review and configure it to avoid operating on any directories or paths that can be influenced or controlled by unprivileged users, such as user home directories or world-writable locations like `/tmp`.