Database/Container, Kubernetes & orchestration

Moby: plugin privilege approval can be bypassed during docker plugin install

CVE-2026-33997Container, Kubernetes & orchestrationcurated

Impact

The daemon's privilege comparison logic in versions before 29.3.1 can accept a privilege set different from the one the user approved, and plugins that request exactly one privilege are never compared at all. A plugin can therefore end up with capabilities, host mounts or device access the operator never agreed to. On a GPU node that matters because the privileges plugins commonly ask for are exactly the dangerous ones - host filesystem mounts and /dev device access covering the accelerators. Red Hat is shipping the fix through OpenShift Service Mesh, Advanced Cluster Management, Multicluster Engine and Global Hub, so the affected code is widely embedded in cluster tooling rather than only in standalone Docker installs.

Who can reach it

An attacker who controls or can substitute the plugin being installed, against an operator who runs docker plugin install and reads the approval prompt. Requires that user interaction; no prior access to the daemon is needed.

What to do

Upgrade to Moby / Docker Engine 29.3.1 or later, or apply the vendor errata if you consume it through Red Hat's cluster products (RHSA-2026:21769, 22347, 23345). Updating the engine means restarting dockerd, which stops the containers on that node unless live-restore is configured - schedule it with the node cordoned. Also audit plugins installed before the fix, since prior approvals were never enforced correctly.

References

https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-33997 https://github.com/moby/moby/security/advisories/GHSA-pxq6-2prw-chj9 https://github.com/moby/moby/releases/tag/docker-v29.3.1 https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:21769

This entry is curated: imported from vendor advisories with machine assistance, not yet individually verified. Confirm against your vendor's advisory before acting, and report anything wrong.