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Datadog SSI Injector can be used to trigger a Local Privilege Escalation in certain conditions

High
0x74696D published GHSA-h8qx-4jh5-pf43 Jul 7, 2026

Package

datadog-apm-inject

Affected versions

< 0.66.0

Patched versions

>= 0.66.0

Description

Impact

The Datadog Single Step Instrumentation (SSI) injector (datadog-apm-inject) in the affected versions stores some helper tooling in a predictable directory on the host filesystem. A local unprivileged attacker with shell access to the same host can use this to execute code with the privileges of the instrumented Java service process in certain circumstances..

Affected systems are those where all of the following are true:

  • Datadog Single Step Instrumentation (SSI) is enabled on Linux or Kubernetes
  • At least one Java service is being instrumented via SSI
  • datadog-apm-inject version is below v0.66.0

Services using the Datadog Java agent (dd-java-agent) without SSI are not affected. No other language runtimes (Python, Ruby, Go, Node.js, .NET, PHP, Rust) are affected.

Patches

The issue is fixed in datadog-apm-inject v0.66.0+.
Users should upgrade to version 0.66.0 or later and restart all instrumented Java services:

  • Kubernetes (Helm): Upgrade the Datadog Helm chart to a recent release (latest recommended). Remove any cluster-lever pinning of the injector in datadog.apm.instrumentation.injector.imageTag. Remove any pod-level annotation (admission.datadoghq.com/apm-inject.version or admission.datadoghq.com/apm-inject.custom-image) that pins the injector to a version below 0.66.0. Restart the affected Java application deployments.
  • Kubernetes (Datadog Operator): Upgrade the Datadog Operator to a recent release (latest recommended). Remove any cluster-level pinning of the injector in spec.features.apm.instrumentation.injector.imageTag. Remove any pod-level annotation pinning an older injector version. Restart the affected Java application deployments.
  • Linux: Upgrade the Datadog Agent and SSI components to the latest version using the install script or Fleet Automation. Verify the installed version with cat /opt/datadog-packages/datadog-apm-inject/stable/version. Restart all affected Java applications.

Workarounds

If an immediate upgrade is not possible:

  • Ensure the host or container running Java services has no other local users with shell access.
  • In Kubernetes, enforce pod-level filesystem isolation and avoid shared /tmp volumes across pods on the same node.

References

Severity

High

CVSS overall score

This score calculates overall vulnerability severity from 0 to 10 and is based on the Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS).
/ 10

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector
Local
Attack complexity
High
Privileges required
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS v3 base metrics

Attack vector: More severe the more the remote (logically and physically) an attacker can be in order to exploit the vulnerability.
Attack complexity: More severe for the least complex attacks.
Privileges required: More severe if no privileges are required.
User interaction: More severe when no user interaction is required.
Scope: More severe when a scope change occurs, e.g. one vulnerable component impacts resources in components beyond its security scope.
Confidentiality: More severe when loss of data confidentiality is highest, measuring the level of data access available to an unauthorized user.
Integrity: More severe when loss of data integrity is the highest, measuring the consequence of data modification possible by an unauthorized user.
Availability: More severe when the loss of impacted component availability is highest.
CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H

CVE ID

CVE-2026-61581

Weaknesses

Creation of Temporary File in Directory with Insecure Permissions

The product creates a temporary file in a directory whose permissions allow unintended actors to determine the file's existence or otherwise access that file. Learn more on MITRE.