Improper Authorization in Data Science Pipelines Leading to Privilege Escalation

Publication date: 2026-08-10

Last updated on: 2026-08-10

Assigner: Red Hat, Inc.

Description

A flaw was found in Data Science Pipelines. A restricted user, or tenant, can exploit an improper authorization vulnerability in the setDefaultServiceAccount function. By specifying a more privileged ServiceAccount (SA) during a CreateRun request, an attacker can bypass authorization checks. This allows the tenant to run their containers with elevated privileges, potentially leading to the disclosure of sensitive information (secrets) and the ability to execute commands within other users' pods.

CVSS Scores

EPSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published

2026-08-10

Last Modified

2026-08-10

Generated

2026-08-11

AI Q&A

2026-08-11

EPSS Evaluated

N/A

NVD

CVE-2026-18620

Affected Vendors & Products

Vendor	Product	Version / Range
redhat	data_science_pipelines	*

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE

KEV

CWE ID	Description
CWE-639	The system's authorization functionality does not prevent one user from gaining access to another user's data or record by modifying the key value identifying the data.

Attack-Flow Graph

Executive Summary

This vulnerability is an improper authorization flaw in Data Science Pipelines. A restricted user can exploit the setDefaultServiceAccount function by specifying a privileged ServiceAccount during a CreateRun request. This bypasses authorization checks, allowing the attacker to run containers with elevated privileges, potentially accessing sensitive data and executing commands in other users' pods.

Impact Analysis

If exploited, this vulnerability could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive information such as secrets. Attackers may also execute arbitrary commands within other users' pods, potentially causing data breaches or system compromise.

Mitigation Strategies

Review and restrict permissions for ServiceAccounts used in Data Science Pipelines. Ensure only necessary privileges are assigned and validate authorization checks in CreateRun requests. Monitor for unauthorized attempts to specify privileged ServiceAccounts.

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