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Fencer Intel
critical 9.8

CVE-2019-5021 json

Versions of the Official Alpine Linux Docker images (since v3.3) contain a NULL password for the `root` user.

published 7y ago modified 4mo ago also EUVD-2019-14628

cvss
9.8
version 3.0, CNA
cisa kev
Not listed
not in CISA's catalog
epss
6.3%
EPSS 6.3% chance of exploitation in 30 days, percentile 93%
public exploits
0
none known

Summary

Versions of the Official Alpine Linux Docker images (since v3.3) contain a NULL password for the `root` user. This vulnerability appears to be the result of a regression introduced in December of 2015. Due to the nature of this issue, systems deployed using affected versions of the Alpine Linux container which utilize Linux PAM, or some other mechanism which uses the system shadow file as an authentication database, may accept a NULL password for the `root` user.

Patch / fix

  • system-user-root SLE Module for Basesystem 15 SP1, SLE Module for Basesystem 15 20190513-3.3.1
  • suse-sles12sp3-image SLE Module for Containers 12 2.0.2-22.1

suse advisories SUSE-SU-2019:1368-2SUSE-SU-2019:1368-1

  • system-user-root openSUSE Leap 15.1, openSUSE Leap 15.0 20190513-lp151.3.3.1

opensuse advisories openSUSE-SU-2019:1495-1

Is CVE-2019-5021 in your stack? Fencer shows which of your repositories are affected as soon as an advisory lands, and opens the fix as a pull request.

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Exploit prediction

6.26% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days, higher than 93% of all scored CVEs (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-09).

Exploits and checks

  • talosintelligence.com https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2019-0782 referenced PoC, tagged "exploit" by a source, unverified

CVSS scores

assigned by version score vector
CNA 3.0 9.8 CVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 3.1 9.8 CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
NVD 2.0 10.0 AV:N/AC:L/Au:N/C:C/I:C/A:C

Affected products

  • n/a Alpine Linux

Classification

Weakness
  • CWE-258 Empty Password in Configuration File

References

Sources

Fencer Intel keeps one entry per vulnerability: the CVE id wins, then GHSA, and records that alias each other are merged, except that two CVEs always keep separate entries. The same data is available as JSON.