GHSA-p436-gjf2-799p — Docker CLI Plugins: Uncontrolled Search Path Element Leads to Local Privilege Escalation on Windows

2026-11-03T23:52:57.757254+00:00

Affected: Go: github.com/docker/cli

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`](https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/docker/cli@v29.1.5+incompatible/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: "…

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GHSA-p436-gjf2-799p — Docker CLI Plugins: Uncontrolled Search Path Element Leads to Local Privilege Escalation on Windows