CVE-2025-54388: Moby's Firewalld reload makes published container ports accessible from remote hosts

Severity: medium (CVSS 4.6 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2025-07-30 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-909

Description

Moby is an open source container framework developed by Docker Inc. that is distributed as Docker Engine, Mirantis Container Runtime, and various other downstream projects/products. In versions 28.2.0 through 28.3.2, when the firewalld service is reloaded it removes all iptables rules including those created by Docker. While Docker should automatically recreate these rules, versions before 28.3.3 fail to recreate the specific rules that block external access to containers. This means that after a firewalld reload, containers with ports published to localhost (like 127.0.0.1:8080) become accessible from remote machines that have network routing to the Docker bridge, even though they should only be accessible from the host itself. The vulnerability only affects explicitly published ports - unpublished ports remain protected. This issue is fixed in version 28.3.3.

Affected products

Docker Engine: from 28.2.0 before 28.3.3 — fixed in 28.3.3

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Docker Engine 28.3.3. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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