{"id":59434,"date":"2025-07-17T02:32:54","date_gmt":"2025-07-17T02:32:54","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2025-08-29T22:44:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-30T04:44:09","slug":"cve-2025-53547-code-execution-vulnerability-in-helm-kubernetes-package-manager","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53547-code-execution-vulnerability-in-helm-kubernetes-package-manager\/","title":{"rendered":"<strong>CVE-2025-53547: Code Execution Vulnerability in Helm Kubernetes Package Manager<\/strong>"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Overview<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The CVE-2025-53547 vulnerability is a critical flaw found in Helm, a popular package manager for Charts in Kubernetes. This vulnerability can potentially allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected system, leading to system compromise or data leakage. This issue pertains to Kubernetes administrators, developers, and organizations that rely on the Helm <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53819-nix-package-manager-security-vulnerability-in-macos\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"80887\">package manager<\/a>. The severity of this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-46835-high-risk-vulnerability-in-git-gui-allows-unauthorized-file-overwrite\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"66855\">vulnerability is emphasized due to the potential for unauthorized<\/a> system access and the widespread usage of Helm in managing Kubernetes applications.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Vulnerability Summary<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>CVE ID: CVE-2025-53547<br \/>\nSeverity: High (8.5)<br \/>\nAttack Vector: Local<br \/>\nPrivileges Required: Low<br \/>\nUser Interaction: Required<br \/>\nImpact: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-27050-memory-corruption-vulnerability-leading-to-potential-system-compromise-and-data-leakage\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"74847\">Potential system compromise or data<\/a> leakage<\/p>\n<p><strong>Affected Products<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-2057077464\" class=\"ameeb-content-2 ameeb-entity-placement\"><div style=\"border-left: 4px solid #555; padding-left: 20px; margin: 48px 0; font-family: Roboto, sans-serif; color: #ffffff; line-height: 1.6; max-width: 700px;\">\r\n  <h2 style=\"margin-top: 0; font-size: 20px; font-weight: 600; display: flex; align-items: center;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"display: inline-flex; align-items: center; margin-right: 8px;\">\r\n      <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Best-App-icon-Ameeba.png\" alt=\"Ameeba Chat Icon\" style=\"width: 40px; height: 40px;\" \/>\r\n    <\/a>\r\n    A new way to communicate\r\n  <\/h2>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 12px;\">\r\n    Ameeba Chat is built on encrypted identity, not personal profiles.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"margin-bottom: 16px;\">\r\n    Message, call, share files, and coordinate with identities kept separate.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <ul style=\"list-style: none; padding-left: 0; margin-bottom: 20px;\">\r\n    <li>\u2022 Encrypted identity<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Ameeba Chat authenticates access<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Aliases and categories<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 End-to-end encrypted chat, calls, and files<\/li>\r\n    <li>\u2022 Secure notes for sensitive information<\/li>\r\n  <\/ul>\r\n\r\n  <p style=\"font-style: italic; font-weight: 600; margin-bottom: 24px;\">\r\n    Private communication, rethought.\r\n  <\/p>\r\n\r\n  <div style=\"display: flex; flex-wrap: wrap; gap: 12px;\">\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\/download\" style=\"background-color: #ffffff; color: #000000; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Download Ameeba Chat<\/a>\r\n    <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/chat\" style=\"border: 1px solid #ffffff; color: #ffffff; padding: 10px 20px; text-decoration: none; border-radius: 6px; font-weight: 500;\">Learn More<\/a>\r\n  <\/div>\r\n<\/div>\r\n<\/div>\n<p>Product | Affected Versions<\/p>\n<p>Helm | Prior to v3.18.4<\/p>\n<p><strong>How the Exploit Works<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>The exploit takes advantage of the dependency updating process within Helm. An attacker can create a malicious Chart.yaml file, which when dependencies are updated, is carried over to a Chart.lock file. If this Chart.lock file is symlinked to a file that can be executed (such as a bash.rc file or shell script), the update process can lead to unintended <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-26074-remote-code-execution-vulnerability-in-orkes-conductor-v3-21-11\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"65992\">code execution<\/a>. Prior to Helm v3.18.4, although Helm flagged the symlinked file, it did not stop the execution process, allowing the exploit to occur.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Conceptual Example Code<\/strong><\/p><div id=\"ameeb-4192757429\" class=\"ameeb-content ameeb-entity-placement\"><div class=\"poptin-embedded\" data-id=\"f6b387694f681\"><\/div>\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n<\/div>\n<p>The following is a conceptual shell command example that might symbolize how an attacker could <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-53964-critical-file-manipulation-vulnerability-in-goldendict\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"67179\">manipulate the Chart.yaml file<\/a>:<\/p>\n<pre><code class=\"\" data-line=\"\"># Attacker crafts a malicious Chart.yaml file\necho &quot;dependencies: {script: &#039;rm -rf \/&#039;}&quot; &gt; Chart.yaml\n# Attacker links the Chart.lock file to a file that can be executed\nln -s ~\/.bashrc Chart.lock\n# Attacker initiates the update process\nhelm dependency update<\/code><\/pre>\n<p>In this example, the &#8216;rm -rf \/&#8217; command is a placeholder for any arbitrary <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-54416-arbitrary-command-execution-vulnerability-in-tj-actions-branch-names-github-action\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"69556\">code<\/a> that the attacker might want to execute. This code gets written into the symlinked file (.bashrc in this case) when the dependencies are updated, thus <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-25214-race-condition-vulnerability-in-wwbn-avideo-14-4-leading-to-arbitrary-code-execution\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"67517\">leading to arbitrary code<\/a> execution.<br \/>\nNote: This is a conceptual example and is not intended to be a working exploit. Always follow ethical guidelines when <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/cve-2025-50105-critical-vulnerability-in-oracle-universal-work-queue-allowing-unauthorized-data-access\/\"  data-wpil-monitor-id=\"69557\">working with vulnerabilities<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Overview The CVE-2025-53547 vulnerability is a critical flaw found in Helm, a popular package manager for Charts in Kubernetes. This vulnerability can potentially allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the affected system, leading to system compromise or data leakage. This issue pertains to Kubernetes administrators, developers, and organizations that rely on the Helm [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"vendor":[89],"product":[],"attack_vector":[80],"asset_type":[],"severity":[],"exploit_status":[],"class_list":["post-59434","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","vendor-kubernetes","attack_vector-rce"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59434","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59434"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59434\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73301,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59434\/revisions\/73301"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59434"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59434"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59434"},{"taxonomy":"vendor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/vendor?post=59434"},{"taxonomy":"product","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product?post=59434"},{"taxonomy":"attack_vector","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/attack_vector?post=59434"},{"taxonomy":"asset_type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/asset_type?post=59434"},{"taxonomy":"severity","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/severity?post=59434"},{"taxonomy":"exploit_status","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ameeba.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/exploit_status?post=59434"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}