A flaw was found in CRI-O's container-creation environment-variable handling (`mergeEnvs` in `server/utils.go`, consumed by `setupContainerEnvironmentAndWorkdir` in `server/container_create.go`). When a `CreateContainer` request supplies a `nil` CRI `Envs` field, CRI-O falls back to using the target OCI image's `config.Env` entries unfiltered, in contrast to the normal merge path, which validates each entry for a `key=value` form before use. An OCI image whose `config.Env` contains an entry with no `=` character (e.g. a bare `NOEQUALS` string) causes CRI-O to split that entry into a single-element slice and then index its second element, which is out of range. This triggers an unrecovered Go runtime panic in the `crio` daemon process, crashing it and terminating the container-runtime service for all workloads on the node until it is restarted.
History

Tue, 25 Aug 2026 12:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

threat_severity

Moderate


Mon, 24 Aug 2026 21:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A flaw was found in CRI-O's container-creation environment-variable handling (`mergeEnvs` in `server/utils.go`, consumed by `setupContainerEnvironmentAndWorkdir` in `server/container_create.go`). When a `CreateContainer` request supplies a `nil` CRI `Envs` field, CRI-O falls back to using the target OCI image's `config.Env` entries unfiltered, in contrast to the normal merge path, which validates each entry for a `key=value` form before use. An OCI image whose `config.Env` contains an entry with no `=` character (e.g. a bare `NOEQUALS` string) causes CRI-O to split that entry into a single-element slice and then index its second element, which is out of range. This triggers an unrecovered Go runtime panic in the `crio` daemon process, crashing it and terminating the container-runtime service for all workloads on the node until it is restarted.
Title Cri-o: cri-o: unvalidated image env var causes daemon crash
First Time appeared Redhat
Redhat openshift
Weaknesses CWE-1287
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:openshift:4
Vendors & Products Redhat
Redhat openshift
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 6, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H'}


cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: redhat

Published: 2026-08-24T21:22:49.638Z

Updated: 2026-08-25T15:03:28.196Z

Reserved: 2026-07-24T15:50:17.184Z

Link: CVE-2026-17113

cve-icon Vulnrichment

No data.

cve-icon NVD

Status : Received

Published: 2026-08-24T22:16:50.333

Modified: 2026-08-25T15:16:30.923

Link: CVE-2026-17113

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Moderate

Publid Date: 2026-08-24T20:52:00Z

Links: CVE-2026-17113 - Bugzilla