Docker Desktop Docker Plugins Uncontrolled Search Path Element Local Privilege Escalation Vulnerability
21Vexday Risk Score
No sign of exploitation. No public exploitation artifact known so far.
ssvc Trackcvss 7epss 0.5%
exploitation probability
0.5%top 62% of all CVEs
observed exploitation
nono source reports it
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.
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/AU:N/R:U
References
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-15558https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2444574https://docs.docker.com/desktop/release-notes/https://github.com/docker/cli/pull/6713https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2025/cve-2025-15558.jsonhttps://www.zerodayinitiative.com/advisories/ZDI-CAN-28304/