CVE-2025-32438: Local privilege escalation in make-initrd-ng

8.8 CVSS

Description

make-initrd-ng is a tool for copying binaries and their dependencies. Local privilege escalation affecting all NixOS users. With systemd.shutdownRamfs.enable enabled (the default) a local user is able to create a program that will be executed by root during shutdown. Patches exist for NixOS 24.11 and 25.05 / unstable. As a workaround, set systemd.shutdownRamfs.enable = false;.

Classification

CVE ID: CVE-2025-32438

CVSS Base Severity: HIGH

CVSS Base Score: 8.8

CVSS Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Problem Types

CWE-378: Creation of Temporary File With Insecure Permissions CWE-379: Creation of Temporary File in Directory with Insecure Permissions

Affected Products

Vendor: NixOS

Product: nixpkgs

Exploit Prediction Scoring System (EPSS)

EPSS Score: 0.01% (probability of being exploited)

EPSS Percentile: 1.09% (scored less or equal to compared to others)

EPSS Date: 2025-04-18 (when was this score calculated)

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-32438
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/security/advisories/GHSA-m7pq-h9p4-8rr4
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/b17590193d8e5697000c23c66afcf11e1753734d
https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/fbf76bf72b161b9f4ab97704a8258776d5f3ffba

Timeline