Tidelift moto: Improper privilege management in AWS Batch Emulation (CVE-2026-124501)

A privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2026-124501) exists in the AWS Batch Emulation component of Tidelift moto versions 5.2.4 and earlier. The flaw resides in the file moto/batch/models.py and allows for improper privilege management through the manipulation of the privileged/volumes argument. The vulnerability is remotely exploitable and public exploit code is available. No vendor response has been recorded.

Impact

Successful exploitation allows for unauthorized privilege escalation within the emulated AWS environment. This may allow an attacker to execute operations with higher permissions than intended by the emulation configuration.

Recommendation

• Inventory environments utilizing Tidelift moto for AWS Batch emulation to identify instances running version 5.2.4 or earlier.
• Restrict access to the service endpoints running the vulnerable moto component to trusted networks or internal-only access.
• Implement monitoring for unexpected container volume mounting or privileged process execution patterns if moto is utilized within a containerized CI/CD or testing pipeline.