Versions of the Official Alpine Linux Docker images (since v3.3) contain a NULL password for the root user. This vulnerability appears to be the result of a regression introduced in December of 2015. Due to the nature of this issue, systems deployed using affected versions of the Alpine Linux container which utilize Linux PAM, or some other mechanism which uses the system shadow file as an authentication database, may accept a NULL password for the root user.
CVE-2019-5021
Score 9.8 from GitHub Security Advisory (severity: CRITICAL) published 2022-05-24. NVD baseline CVSS 9.8; sources differ by 0.0.
- High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.
- CVSS v3
- 9.8
- EG Score
- 9.8(medium)
- EPSS
- 92.8%
- KEV
- Not listed
Published
May 8, 2019
Last Modified
November 21, 2024
Advisory Details (5)
Auto-updated Jun 22, 2026Docker Image Vulnerability - CVE-2019-5021 | Alpine Linux
https://alpinelinux.org/posts/Docker-image-vulnerability-CVE-2019-5021.htmlTALOS-2019-0782 || Cisco Talos Intelligence Group - Comprehensive Threat Intelligence
https://talosintelligence.com/vulnerability_reports/TALOS-2019-0782Weakness Classification(2)
MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.
Data Freshness Timeline
(refreshed 11× in last 7d / 43× in last 30d)
Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.
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Frequently asked(5)
What is CVE-2019-5021?
When was CVE-2019-5021 disclosed?
Is CVE-2019-5021 actively exploited?
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2019-5021?
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Dependency Blast Radius
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