Affected: Docker CLI, Docker Compose, Red Hat Assisted Installer for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 2, Red Hat Builds for Red Hat OpenShift, Red Hat Gatekeeper 3, Red Hat Kernel Module Management Operator for Red Hat Openshift, Red Hat Machine Deletion Remediation Operator, Red Hat Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes, Red Hat Multicluster Global Hub, Red Hat OpenShift Pipelines and 19 more

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 29.1.5 and Windows binaries acting as a CLI-plugin manager using the github.com/docker/cli/cli-plugins/manager https://pkg.go.dev/github.com/docker/cli@v29.1.5+incompatible/cli-plugins/manager  package, such as Docker Compose.

This issue does not impact non-Windows binaries, and projects not using the plugin-manager code.