What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2025-15558: Docker Desktop Docker Plugins Uncontrolled Search Path Element Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability

• Severity: high (CVSS 8.0 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: none known
• Published: 2026-03-04 · updated 2026-07-15
• Weakness: CWE-427

Description

Docker CLI for Windows searches for plugin binaries in C:\ProgramData\Docker\cli-plugins, a directory that does not exist by default. A low-privileged attacker can create this directory and place malicious CLI plugin binaries (docker-compose.exe, docker-buildx.exe, etc.) that are executed when a victim user opens Docker Desktop or invokes Docker CLI plugin features, and allow privilege-escalation if the docker CLI is executed as a privileged user. This issue affects Docker CLI: through 29.1.5 and Windows binaries acting as a CLI-plugin manager using the github.com/docker/cli/cli-plugins/manager https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/docker/cli@v29.1.5+incompatible/cli-plugins/manager  package, such as Docker Compose. This issue does not impact non-Windows binaries, and projects not using the plugin-manager code.

Affected products

• Docker Command Line Interface: through 29.1.5

References

• https://docs.docker.com/desktop/release-notes/
• https://github.com/docker/cli/pull/6713
• https://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-CAN-28304/
• https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-15558
• https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2444574
• https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2025/cve-2025-15558.json

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