Vulnerability record · CVE-2019-5021 · published 8 May 2019
CVE-2019-5021: Gliderlabs docker-alpine vulnerability
GGliderlabs · Docker Alpine
Versions of the Official Alpine Linux Docker images (since v3.3) contain a NULL password for the `root` user. This vulnerability appears to be the result of a regression introduced in December of 2015. Due to the nature of this issue, systems deployed using affected versions of the Alpine Linux container which utilize Linux PAM, or some other mechanism which uses the system shadow file as an authentication database, may accept a NULL password for the `root` user.
Description
Versions of the Official Alpine Linux Docker images (since v3.3) contain a NULL password for the `root` user. This vulnerability appears to be the result of a regression introduced in December of 2015. Due to the nature of this issue, systems deployed using affected versions of the Alpine Linux container which utilize Linux PAM, or some other mechanism which uses the system shadow file as an authentication database, may accept a NULL password for the `root` user.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Affected products
3 vulnerable configurations from NVD's CPE data, grouped by vendor and product.
References
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Related vulnerabilities
Same products first, then exploited flaws of the same weakness class.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database (record CVE-2019-5021), CISA KEV, FIRST EPSS (scores of 2026-09-27). This page is refreshed as NVD updates the record.