Local privilege escalation in make-initrd-ng

{
  "id": "a37cd5562343a8f90453cf79812dc9653a2cddffdf0784d5957995c850e133e8",
  "url": "https://osv.dev/vulnerability/CVE-2025-32438",
  "method": "structured",
  "payload": {
    "kind": "advisory",
    "title": "Local privilege escalation in make-initrd-ng",
    "summary": "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;.",
    "evidence": "osv:CVE-2025-32438",
    "products": [],
    "severity": "high",
    "structured": {
      "id": "CVE-2025-32438",
      "aliases": [
        "CVE-2025-32438",
        "GHSA-m7pq-h9p4-8rr4"
      ],
      "metrics": [
        {
          "type": "CVSS_V3",
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H"
        }
      ],
      "affected": [
        {
          "ranges": [
            {
              "repo": "https://github.com/nixos/nixpkgs",
              "type": "GIT",
              "events": [
                {
                  "introduced": "0"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "b17590193d8e5697000c23c66afcf11e1753734d"
                },
                {
                  "fixed": "fbf76bf72b161b9f4ab97704a8258776d5f3ffba"
                }
              ],
              "database_specific": {
                "extracted_events": [
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "b17590193d8e5697000c23c66afcf11e1753734d"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "AFFECTED_FIELD",
                    "strategy": "StringRangeExpression"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "introduced": "0"
                      },
                      {
                        "fixed": "fbf76bf72b161b9f4ab97704a8258776d5f3ffba"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "AFFECTED_FIELD",
                    "strategy": "StringRangeExpression"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "b17590193d8e5697000c23c66afcf11e1753734d"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  },
                  {
                    "range": [
                      {
                        "fixed": "fbf76bf72b161b9f4ab97704a8258776d5f3ffba"
                      }
                    ],
                    "source": "REFERENCES_COMMIT"
                  }
                ]
              }
            }
          ],
          "versions": [
            "branch-off-24.11",
            "24.11-beta",
            "24.11",
            "24.11-pre",
            "24.05-pre",
            "23.11-beta",
            "23.11-pre",
            "23.05-pre",
            "21.11-pre",
            "18.09-beta",
            "18.03-beta",
            "v208",
            "v206",
            "v192",
            "15.09-beta",
            "0.14",
            "0.13",
            "0.4",
            "0.3",
            "0.2",
            "0.1"
          ],
          "database_specific": {
            "source": "https://storage.googleapis.com/cve-osv-conversion/osv-output/CVE-2025-32438.json"
          }
        }
      ],
      "modified": "2026-10-28T02:30:25.838945819Z",
      "provider": "osv",
      "references": [
        "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/32xxx/CVE-2025-32438.json",
        "https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/security/advisories/GHSA-m7pq-h9p4-8rr4",
        "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-32438",
        "https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/b17590193d8e5697000c23c66afcf11e1753734d",
        "https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/fbf76bf72b161b9f4ab97704a8258776d5f3ffba"
      ],
      "provider_metadata": {
        "cwe_ids": [
          "CWE-378",
          "CWE-379"
        ],
        "cna_assigner": "GitHub_M",
        "osv_generated_from": "https://github.com/CVEProject/cvelistV5/tree/main/cves/2025/32xxx/CVE-2025-32438.json"
      }
    },
    "related_cves": [
      {
        "value": "CVE-2025-32438",
        "evidence": "/id"
      }
    ],
    "security_relevant": true,
    "severity_evidence": "/severity/0/score"
  },
  "source_id": "core-osv",
  "document_id": 492397,
  "published_at": "2025-04-15T19:57:04.668+00:00"
}