CVE-2025-65105: Apptainer ineffectively applies selinux and apparmor --security options
In Apptainer versions less than 1.4.5, a container can disable two of the forms of the little used --security option, in particular the forms --security=apparmor:<profile> and --security=selinux:<label> which otherwise put restrictions on operations that containers can do. The --security option has always been mentioned in Apptainer documentation as being a feature for the root user, although these forms do also work for unprivileged users on systems where the corresponding feature is enabled. Apparmor is enabled by default on Debian-based distributions and SElinux is enabled by default on RHEL-based distributions, but on SUSE it depends on the distribution version.
In addition, a bug in the detection of selinux support in Apptainer’s suid mode means that --security selinux:<label> flags may not be applied, even in the absence of an attack. In that case a warning message is emitted indicating that selinux is unavailable, but the warning may be may be overlooked, mis-interpreted, or not seen when apptainer is run from a script or other tool. Failure to apply requested restrictions should result in a fatal error rather than just a warning message.
References
- github.com/advisories/GHSA-j3rw-fx6g-q46j
- github.com/apptainer/apptainer
- github.com/apptainer/apptainer/commit/4313b42717e18a4add7dd7503528bc15af905981
- github.com/apptainer/apptainer/commit/82f17900a0c31bc769bf9b4612d271c7068d8bf2
- github.com/apptainer/apptainer/pull/3226
- github.com/apptainer/apptainer/security/advisories/GHSA-j3rw-fx6g-q46j
- github.com/opencontainers/runc/security/advisories/GHSA-cgrx-mc8f-2prm
- github.com/sylabs/singularity/security/advisories/GHSA-wwrx-w7c9-rf87
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2025-65105
Code Behaviors & Features
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