# CVE-2026-17113: CRI-O environment-variable handling denial of service

Source: https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-17113-cri-o-environment-variable-handling-denial-of-service  
Publisher: Junglewise Threat Intelligence, https://junglewise.ai/threats  
Published: 2026-08-24. Updated: 2026-09-25  
License: CC BY 4.0 with a link back

CVE-2026-17113 · Severity: medium · CVSS 6 · Published 2026-08-24

CRI-O is a container runtime that manages containerized workloads in Kubernetes environments. A flaw in how it processes environment variables from container images can cause the CRI-O daemon to crash, disabling all container services on that node until manually restarted. An attacker with the ability to create containers using a specially crafted image could trigger this crash and interrupt all workloads running on the affected node.

Technologies: [CRI-O](https://junglewise.ai/threats/technologies/cri-o). Vendors: [CRI-O](https://junglewise.ai/threats/vendors/cri-o).

## Quick answers

**Is CVE-2026-17113 exploited in the wild?** No. Junglewise Threat Intelligence has no report of CVE-2026-17113 being exploited in the wild.

**How severe is CVE-2026-17113?** Medium severity, with a CVSS score of 6, published 24 August 2026.

**Which products and versions are affected?** CRI-O CRI-O.

**Is there a fix for CVE-2026-17113?** No fixed version is recorded yet. Check the vendor's advisory in the references below. If you run it, Junglewise drafts a mitigation that fits your setup and applies it once you approve, with senior security engineers behind it.

**How is CVE-2026-17113 attacked?** It is attacked over the network, in a hosted service.

**Am I affected by CVE-2026-17113?** Check whether you run CRI-O. Junglewise does that check for you around the clock: connect your code, cloud and domains, and it matches new vulnerabilities like this one against what you actually run and tells you when one reaches you.

## Technical details

CRI-O's `mergeEnvs` function in `server/utils.go` fails to validate environment-variable entries when a CreateContainer request supplies a nil CRI Envs field. In this fallback path, entries from the OCI image's `config.Env` are used directly without the validation checks present in the normal merge path. If an image's config.Env contains a malformed entry lacking an `=` character (e.g., a bare string like `NOEQUALS`), the code splits it into a single-element slice and then attempts to index the second element, causing an out-of-bounds access. This triggers an unrecovered Go runtime panic in the crio daemon process, crashing the container-runtime service and preventing all containers on the node from running until the daemon is manually restarted. The vulnerability requires the ability to create a container with a malicious OCI image, but no valid CRI Envs field.

## Affected products

- CRI-O CRI-O

## Timeline

- 2026-08-24: disclosed

## References

- [https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o](https://github.com/cri-o/cri-o)
- [https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/](https://access.redhat.com/downloads/content/package-browser/)

## Related threats

- [CRI-O bind_mount_prefix symlink privilege escalation](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-76061-a-flaw-was-found-in-cri-o-s-bind-mount-prefix-handling-when)
- [CRI-O sandbox state poisoning via pod annotations](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-62146-a-trust-boundary-flaw-in-cri-o-s-sandbox-state-persistence-allows)
- [CRI-O checkpoint restore security context bypass](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-92574-a-vulnerability-in-cri-o-checkpoint-restore-allows-a-user-who-can)
- [CRI-O /etc/passwd injection via HOME environment variable bypass](https://junglewise.ai/threats/cve-2026-15809-cri-o-etc-passwd-injection-via-home-environment-variable-bypass)