CVE-2025-32438Local privilege escalation in make-initrd-ng

Description

make-initrd-ng is a tool for copying binaries and their dependencies. Local privilege escalation affecting all NixOS users. With systemd.shutdownRamfs.enable enabled (the default) a local user is able to create a program that will be executed by root during shutdown. Patches exist for NixOS 24.11 and 25.05 / unstable. As a workaround, set systemd.shutdownRamfs.enable = false;.

Data: CVE.org, NVD, CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS, Ubuntu. Published as the sources state it, in English.

Affected products and versions

References and patches

• https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/security/advisories/GHSA-m7pq-h9p4-8rr4
• https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/b17590193d8e5697000c23c66afcf11e1753734d
• https://github.com/NixOS/nixpkgs/commit/fbf76bf72b161b9f4ab97704a8258776d5f3ffba