Kubewarden: RBAC Reconnaissance via unchecked can_i host capability call
Summary
| CVE | CVE-2026-42541 |
|---|---|
| State | PUBLISHED |
| Assigner | GitHub_M |
| Source Priority | CVE Program / NVD first with legacy fallback |
| Published | 2026-05-12 18:17:24 UTC |
| Updated | 2026-05-12 18:17:24 UTC |
| Description | Kubewarden is a policy engine for Kubernetes. Prior to , An attacker with privileged AdmissionPolicy or AdmissionPolicyGroup create permissions (which isn't the default) can craft a policy that makes use of the can_i host callback. The callback issues a SubjectAccessReview (SAR) requests to enumerate RBAC permissions of any user or service account across the cluster. can_i does not perform that check to enforce the context-aware allow-list and forwards the request directly to the callback handler, which executes a real SubjectAccessReview using policy-server privileges. This creates a policy-level authorization gap: can_i is effectively usable even when the policy has no context-aware resource grant. This is an information disclosure / reconnaissance issue, and not direct workload data exfiltration. The attacker learns permission information, such as whether specific service accounts can "get secrets", "create pods", or "bind clusterroles" in chosen namespaces. This vulnerability is fixed in . |
Risk And Classification
Primary CVSS: v3.1 4.3 MEDIUM from [email protected]
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
Problem Types: CWE-862 | CWE-862 CWE-862: Missing Authorization
| Version | Source | Type | Score | Severity | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.1 | [email protected] | Secondary | 4.3 | MEDIUM | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N |
| 3.1 | CNA | DECLARED | 4.3 | MEDIUM | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N |
CVSS v3.1 Breakdown
Attack Vector
NetworkAttack Complexity
LowPrivileges Required
LowUser Interaction
NoneScope
UnchangedConfidentiality
LowIntegrity
NoneAvailability
NoneCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:N/A:N
Vendor Declared Affected Products
| Source | Vendor | Product | Version | Platforms |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CNA | Kubewarden | Kubewarden-controller | affected < 1.35.0 | Not specified |
References
| Reference | Source | Link | Tags |
|---|---|---|---|
| github.com/kubewarden/adm-controller/security/advisories/GHSA-wqcw-g35j-... | [email protected] | github.com | |
| CVE Program record | CVE.ORG | www.cve.org | canonical |
| NVD vulnerability detail | NVD | nvd.nist.gov | canonical, analysis |
No vendor comments have been submitted for this CVE.
There are currently no legacy QID mappings associated with this CVE.