CVE-2020-5291Privilege escalation in setuid mode via user namespaces in Bubblewrap
- 7.2HighCVSS base score
- 0.90%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 40% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
Bubblewrap (bwrap) before version 0.4.1, if installed in setuid mode and the kernel supports unprivileged user namespaces, then the `bwrap --userns2` option can be used to make the setuid process keep running as root while being traceable. This can in turn be used to gain root permissions. Note that this only affects the combination of bubblewrap in setuid mode (which is typically used when unprivileged user namespaces are not supported) and the support of unprivileged user namespaces. Known to be affected are: * Debian testing/unstable, if unprivileged user namespaces enabled (not default) * Debian buster-backports, if unprivileged user namespaces enabled (not default) * Arch if using `linux-hardened`, if unprivileged user namespaces enabled (not default) * Centos 7 flatpak COPR, if unprivileged user namespaces enabled (not default) This has been fixed in the 0.4.1 release, and all affected users should update.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 3 months later
· 3 months later
Published
- 4 years later
· 4 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High7.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:R/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.8 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.90% · top 40% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 7.2.
Affected products
- affected < 0.4.1
References
References2
- https://github.com/containers/bubblewrap/security/advisories/GHSA-j2qp-rvxj-43vj (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/containers/bubblewrap/commit/1f7e2ad948c051054b683461885a0215f1806240 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2020-26485 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisories (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2020-5291)Record last updated .