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.

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History

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'}


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cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: redhat

Published:

Updated: 2026-08-24T21:36:12.479Z

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: 2026-08-24T22:16:50.333

Link: CVE-2026-17113

cve-icon Redhat

No data.

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

No data.

Weaknesses