GHSA-p436-gjf2-799p

Suggest an improvement
Source
https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-p436-gjf2-799p
Import Source
https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/03/GHSA-p436-gjf2-799p/GHSA-p436-gjf2-799p.json
JSON Data
https://api.osv.dev/v1/vulns/GHSA-p436-gjf2-799p
Aliases
Downstream
Related
Published
2026-03-05T00:10:40Z
Modified
2026-03-10T09:25:56.790397Z
Severity
  • 7.0 (High) CVSS_V4 - CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:P/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N CVSS Calculator
Summary
Docker CLI Plugins: Uncontrolled Search Path Element Leads to Local Privilege Escalation on Windows
Details

This issue affects Docker CLI through 29.1.5

Impact

Docker CLI for Windows searches for plugin binaries in C:\ProgramData\Docker\cli-plugins, a directory that does not exist by default. A low-privileged attacker can create this directory and place malicious CLI plugin binaries (docker-compose.exe, docker-buildx.exe, etc.) that are executed when a victim user opens Docker Desktop or invokes Docker CLI plugin features, and allow privilege-escalation if the docker CLI is executed as a privileged user.

This issue affects Docker CLI through v29.1.5 (fixed in v29.2.0). It impacts Windows binaries acting as a CLI plugin manager via the github.com/docker/cli/cli-plugins/manager package, which is consumed by downstream projects such as Docker Compose.

Docker Compose became affected starting in v2.31.0, when it incorporated the relevant CLI plugin manager code (see https://github.com/docker/compose/pull/12300), and is fixed in v5.1.0.

This issue does not impact non-Windows binaries or projects that do not use the plugin manager code.

Patches

Fixed version starts with 29.2.0

This issue was fixed in https://github.com/docker/cli/commit/13759330b1f7e7cb0d67047ea42c5482548ba7fa (https://github.com/docker/cli/pull/6713), which removed %PROGRAMDATA%\Docker\cli-plugins from the list of paths used for plugin-discovery on Windows.

Workarounds

None

Resources

  • Pull request: "cli-plugins/manager: remove legacy system-wide cli-plugin path" (https://github.com/docker/cli/pull/6713)
  • Patch: https://github.com/docker/cli/commit/13759330b1f7e7cb0d67047ea42c5482548ba7fa.patch

Credits

Nitesh Surana (niteshsurana.com) of Trend Research of TrendAI

Database specific 
{
    "github_reviewed_at": "2026-03-05T00:10:40Z",
    "nvd_published_at": "2026-03-04T17:16:14Z",
    "severity": "HIGH",
    "cwe_ids": [
        "CWE-427"
    ],
    "github_reviewed": true
}
References

Affected packages

Go / github.com/docker/cli

Package

Name
github.com/docker/cli
View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl
pkg:golang/github.com/docker/cli

Affected ranges

Type
SEMVER
Events
Introduced
19.03.0
Fixed
29.2.0

Database specific

source 
"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/03/GHSA-p436-gjf2-799p/GHSA-p436-gjf2-799p.json"

Go / github.com/docker/compose/v2

Package

Name
github.com/docker/compose/v2
View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl
pkg:golang/github.com/docker/compose/v2

Affected ranges

Type
SEMVER
Events
Introduced
2.31.0
Last affected
2.40.3

Database specific

source 
"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/03/GHSA-p436-gjf2-799p/GHSA-p436-gjf2-799p.json"

Go / github.com/docker/compose/v5

Package

Name
github.com/docker/compose/v5
View open source insights on deps.dev
Purl
pkg:golang/github.com/docker/compose/v5

Affected ranges

Type
SEMVER
Events
Introduced
0Unknown introduced version / All previous versions are affected
Fixed
5.1.0

Database specific

source 
"https://github.com/github/advisory-database/blob/main/advisories/github-reviewed/2026/03/GHSA-p436-gjf2-799p/GHSA-p436-gjf2-799p.json"