How the Vulnerability Works
- Docker Compose added support for resolving remote OCI (Open Container Initiative) compose artifacts – images or bundles pulled from registries.
- These artifacts may include annotations such as com.docker.compose.extends or com.docker.compose.envfile. Compose trusts values from fields like com.docker.compose.file or com.docker.compose.envfile and joins them with the local cache directory path.
- Because the path is not properly normalised or validated, an attacker-provided value like ../../../../etc/ssh/authorized_keys (for example) can escape the cache directory and overwrite critical host files.
- The vulnerability affects all platforms/environments that resolve remote OCI compose artifacts – including Linux, macOS, Docker Desktop, standalone Compose binaries, cloud development environments and CI/CD runners.
- What makes it especially dangerous: exploit doesn’t necessarily require the user to run containers. Even read-only commands can trigger the write-path logic.
Impact Across Industries
Because containerisation is widely used, the implications of this vulnerability reach many sectors:
- Financial Services & FinTech – Build pipelines and development systems for trading platforms or financial applications often use Docker; host compromise could lead to IP theft or fraud.
- Healthcare / Life Sciences – Research systems, dev/test environments for medical software may get compromised, potentially exposing sensitive data.
- Retail / E-Commerce – CI/CD and cloud dev environments for web stores may be leveraged to inject malicious code or change checkout logic.
- Manufacturing / Industrial Automation – Dev/test environments for embedded/IoT systems often utilise containers; host compromise here may jeopardise supply chain code integrity.
- Government / Public Sector – Secure development environments or cloud services for defence/critical infrastructure may be exposed via this path.
Immediate Actions to Take
- Upgrade Docker Compose Immediately: Ensure your installations are upgraded to version 2.40.2 or later, where the fix has been applied.
- Validate Artifact Sources: Pull OCI compose artifacts only from trusted registries. Treat any remote‐artifact annotation fields as suspect.
- Harden Permissions: Run Compose under least privilege. Do not run as root unless absolutely required. Restrict write permissions of the cache directory and host file paths.
- Audit CI/CD Runners & Dev Environments: These often have elevated rights; ensure runner endpoints are clean and monitor for unexpected file writes or permission changes.
- Implement File Integrity Monitoring: Monitor critical host system files (e.g., /etc, /usr/bin, authorised_keys, startup scripts) for unexpected modifications.
- Segment Dev vs Production Hosts: Ensure development machines and CI/CD runners are isolated from production systems to limit blast radius if compromised.
- Educate Developers/DevOps: Make them aware that even “config” commands might carry risk; artefact trust must be managed.
- Review Container Tooling Policies: Evaluate whether remote OCI‐compose artifacts are necessary. If not, restrict use.
Conclusion
CVE-2025-62725 is a stark reminder that tooling in the container ecosystem can introduce severe risks, not just for runtime containers but for host infrastructure, build systems, and development environments. With the ability to overwrite host files without running full containers, attackers could silently establish persistence, escalate privileges, or disrupt services. Immediate patching, combined with stricter provenance controls and endpoint hardening, is essential.
About COE Security
COE Security partners with organizations in financial services, healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and government to secure AI-powered systems and ensure compliance. Our offerings include:
- AI-enhanced threat detection and real-time monitoring
- Data governance aligned with GDPR, HIPAA, and PCI DSS
- Secure model validation to guard against adversarial attacks
- Customized training to embed AI security best practices
- Penetration Testing (Mobile, Web, AI, Product, IoT, Network & Cloud)
- Secure Software Development Consulting (SSDLC)
- Customized CyberSecurity Services
Given vulnerabilities like CVE-2025-62725, we also offer container/tooling security reviews, artifact provenance assessments, CI/CD pipeline compromise simulations, and file integrity monitoring for host systems.
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