CVE-2026-92574: Cri-o: cri-o checkpoint restore bypasses destination security context

Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.7% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2026-09-21 · updated 2026-10-30
Weakness: CWE-250

Description

A vulnerability in CRI-O checkpoint restore allows a user who can create a pod from a malicious checkpointed container to bypass the destination Kubernetes security context. The restored process may retain credentials, Linux capabilities, no_new_privs, and seccomp state from the checkpoint instead of enforcing the destination configuration. This can allow execution with elevated privileges across the container security boundary. Affected upstream supported versions are CRI-O 1.34 and later. Downstream Red Hat products are affected from OCP 4.17 onward. Fixes have been applied to supported branches but are not yet released. Exploitation requires permission to create a pod from a malicious checkpoint image and checkpoint restore functionality to be available.

Affected products

cri-o: from 1.34.0 before 1.34.14; from 1.35.0 before 1.35.9; from 1.36.0 before 1.36.6 — fixed in 1.34.14, 1.35.9, 1.36.6
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.18: all versions
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 5: all versions

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: cri-o 1.34.14, 1.35.9, 1.36.6. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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