CVE Intelligence
Medium Denial of service

CVE-2026-25122 — apko is vulnerable to unbounded resource consumption in expandapk.Split on attacker-controlled .apk streams

apko allows users to build and publish OCI container images built from apk packages. From version 0.14.8 to before 1.1.0, expandapk.Split drains the first gzip stream of an APK archive via io.Copy(io.Discard, gzi) without explicit bounds. With an attacker-controlled input stream, this can force large gzip inflation work and lead to resource exhaustion (availability impact). The Split function reads the first tar header, then drains the remainder of the gzip stream by reading from the gzip reader directly without any maximum uncompressed byte limit or inflate-ratio cap. A caller that parses attacker-controlled APK streams may be forced to spend excessive CPU time inflating gzip data, leading to timeouts or process slowdown. This issue has been patched in version 1.1.0.

Published Feb 4, 2026 · Updated Oct 13, 2026 · Sources: NIST National Vulnerability Database, CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP · CNA: GitHub_M

Who exploits it and how urgent it is

A 0–100 score combining confirmed exploitation, ransomware and APT use, public exploits, EPSS and severity.

No exploitation signal in the sources consulted so far.
How the score was calculated
  • EPSS 0.1% (30-day exploitation probability)+0
  • Technical severity (medium)+3

The score orders the patch queue; it does not replace your asset context (internet exposure, criticality, compensating controls).

Triage

Is it exploited, how likely is exploitation, what does it touch, and how severe do the sources call it.

Exploitation
Not confirmed
Not in CISA KEV — an absence of record, not proof it is unexploited.
EPSS FIRST
0.13%
ahead of 2% of scored CVEs · Oct 14, 2026
Affects
Chainguard
Apko
CVSS base
5.5
Medium · 2 source(s)

CISA SSVC assessment CISA

Three decision points CISA publishes for the CVEs it assesses (SSVC 2.0.3). A stakeholder decision, not a severity score.

Exploitation
None
none · proof-of-concept · active
Automatable
No
can an attacker script the kill-chain steps
Technical impact
Partial
partial · total control of the vulnerable component

Remediation

Fixes and mitigations documented by the sources — linked to the original advisory.

  • Documented patch — github.com (NIST National Vulnerability Database)

First 24 hours

Ordered from the record’s own fields — exposure first, because you cannot patch what you have not found. A rule-generated starting point.

  1. Identify exposed assets running the affected vendor/product/version combinations (Chainguard Apko, Chainguard-dev Apko).
  2. Apply the fixed version or the patch documented under Remediation.
  3. Exploitation requires user interaction: tighten email/web filtering and warn affected users.
  4. Search available logs for exploit probes matching the vulnerability class (denial of service), errors and authentication anomalies.

Affected scope

Vendor, product and versions as the sources word them.

VendorProductVersionsStatusSource
Chainguard Apko ≥ 0.14.8 and < 1.1.0 Vulnerable NIST National Vulnerability Database
Chainguard-dev Apko version >= 0.14.8, < 1.1.0 Vulnerable CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP

Attack characteristics

The CVSS vector, decoded. It describes the attack, not your exposure to it.

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
Low
Privileges required
None
User interaction
Required
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

Every base score collected

Sources score independently and may disagree; each row says who scored it and under which version.

ScoreVersionSeverityExpl.ImpactScored by
5.5 CVSS 3.1 Medium 1.8 3.6 security-advisories@github.com via NIST National Vulnerability Database
5.5 CVSS 3.1 Medium — — GitHub_M via CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:N/UI:R/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H (score shown at the top: security-advisories@github.com)

Weakness MITRE

Weakness class according to MITRE’s CWE catalog.

CWE-770 · Allocation of Resources Without Limits or Throttling

Other CVEs with this weakness →

EPSS over time FIRST

Oct 13, 2026 → Oct 14, 2026 · 2 reading(s) · max 0.13%

Detection

Read off the CVSS vector and the weakness class. Starting points, not tested rules.

  • Local/physical vector: focus on endpoint telemetry (EDR) from affected hosts.
  • Track CPU/memory spikes and availability drops correlated with request patterns.
endpoint telemetry (EDR)resource metrics

Timeline

What happened to this CVE, newest first.

  • 2026
  • Affected products added · chainguard-dev/apko
    Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • SSVC assessment updated
    Oct 13, 2026 · CVE Program (cve.org) e CISA ADP
  • Record published
    Oct 13, 2026
  • Fix documented
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • CVSS changed · 5.5
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Source status changed · → Analyzed
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • Record created in this database
    Oct 13, 2026 · NIST National Vulnerability Database
  • CVE published
    Feb 4, 2026 · GitHub_M

Source activity

Repeated readings are counted rather than listed.

  • 1× Official description updated · Oct 13, 2026 – Oct 13, 2026

References

2 on the record

Elsewhere on this site

Chainguard
every CVE for this vendor
Denial of service
same class
CWE-770
other pages naming this weakness

Related CVEs (same products)

  • CVE-2026-105768 apko /etc/passwd and /etc/group UID/GID truncation writes package-supplied entries as root 10d
  • CVE-2026-54174 melange: Incomplete package integrity verification allows data section substitution Sep 11, 2026
  • CVE-2026-42575 apko doesn't verify downloaded apk packages against APKINDEX checksum (package substitution possible) May 9, 2026
  • CVE-2026-42574 apko dirFS has a symlink-following path traversal that allows multiple entry points to escape the build root May 9, 2026
  • CVE-2026-42576 apko `DiscoverKeys` has a panic on non-rsa jwks key that causes crash during key discovery May 9, 2026
  • CVE-2026-25140 apko affected by potential unbounded resource consumption in expandapk.ExpandApk on attacker-controlled .apk streams Feb 4, 2026

Not in any source we poll

Listed rather than left blank: an empty field and an unmeasured one look identical on screen, and only one is a reason to look elsewhere.

  • No confirmed IOCs, IP addresses, domains, file hashes, or malware artifacts supplied.
  • No organization-specific asset inventory, compensating-control status, or patch deployment evidence supplied.
  • No exploit packet captures, log samples, or incident case IDs supplied.

Answered from this record

Text assembled only from the fields above — no additional claims.

What should defenders know first?

CVE-2026-25122 is "apko is vulnerable to unbounded resource consumption in expandapk.Split on attacker-controlled .apk streams", rated Medium. It affects Apko (Chainguard); versions are in the scope table. It is not in CISA KEV, which does not rule out exploitation. CVSS 5.5 describes technical severity. EPSS 0.13% estimates the probability of exploitation in 30 days; neither replaces your asset context. First verify whether exposed or business-critical assets run the affected versions, apply vendor fixes or mitigations, and preserve logs for review.

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