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HIGHpublic exploit

CVE-2025-53547

CVE-2025-53547 — Helm Chart Dependency Updating With Malicious Chart.yaml Content And Symlink Can Lead To Code Execution

Helm is a package manager for Charts for Kubernetes. Prior to 3.18.4, a specially crafted Chart.yaml file along with a specially linked Chart.lock file can lead to local code execution when dependencies are updated. Fields in a Chart.yaml file, that are carried over to a Chart.lock file when dependencies are updated and this file is written, can be crafted in a way that can cause execution if that same content were in a file that is executed (e.g., a bash.rc file or shell script). If the Chart.lock file is symlinked to one of these files updating dependencies will write the lock file content to the symlinked file. This can lead to unwanted execution. Helm warns of the symlinked file but did not stop execution due to symlinking. This issue has been resolved in Helm v3.18.4.

Published Updated Sources: cvelistV5, GitHub_M

Triage

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

Exploitation

Exploit code

public exploit, none observed

EPSS

0%

chance of exploitation in 30 days

Affects

helm

helm

CVSS base

8.5

HIGH

CISA SSVC assessment

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

CISA

Exploitation

None

none · proof-of-concept · active

Automatable

No

can an attacker script all four kill-chain steps

Technical impact

Total

partial · total control of the vulnerable component

Affected scope

The catalog records vendors and products as separate lists, not pairs, so which product belongs to which vendor is not something this page can say.

Vendors (1)

helm

Products (1)

helm

Every base score collected

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

ScoreVersionSeverityExpl.ImpactSource
8.5CVSS 3.1HIGH——cvelistV5

Weakness & attack patterns

  • CWE-94

Attack patterns reported against this CVE. The ATT&CK techniques below are inferred from its weakness class.

  • T1027.006Obfuscated Files or Information: HTML Smuggling
  • T1027.009Obfuscated Files or Information: Embedded Payloads
  • T1564.009Hide Artifacts: Resource Forking

Public exploit

Capability, not use: code existing is a different claim from anyone running it.

Indexed by

poc in github

References

3 on the record

Elsewhere on this site

  • helmevery CVE for this vendor
  • CWE-94other pages naming this weakness

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.