CVE-2026-54523
Received Received - Intake

Cross-Namespace Resource Creation in Kyverno

Vulnerability report for CVE-2026-54523, including description, CVSS score, EPSS score, affected products, exploitability, helpful resources, and attack-flow context.

Publication date: 2026-08-26

Last updated on: 2026-08-26

Assigner: GitHub, Inc.

Description

Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. From 1.18.0 until 1.18.2, the NamespacedMutatingPolicy CEL compiler exposes the generator library to matchConditions, allowing a namespace-scoped policy to invoke generator.apply(namespace, resources) with an arbitrary target namespace. The validation in pkg/cel/policies/mpol/validate.go checks that the policy compiles but does not enforce namespace scope, and GenerateResources in pkg/cel/libs/context.go does not reject the cross-namespace target. A user who can create NamespacedMutatingPolicy objects in one namespace can cause the admission controller, operating with cluster-wide privileges, to create ConfigMaps, NetworkPolicies, Secrets, RoleBindings, and other resources in another namespace, enabling unauthorized modification and potential privilege escalation. This issue is fixed in version 1.18.2.

CVSS Scores

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Meta Information

Published
2026-08-26
Last Modified
2026-08-26
Generated
2026-08-26
AI Q&A
2026-08-26
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
EUVD

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 2 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
kyverno kyverno From 1.18.0 (inc) to 1.18.2 (inc)
kyverno kyverno 1.18.2

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-862 The product does not perform an authorization check when an actor attempts to access a resource or perform an action.

Attack-Flow Graph

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability in Kyverno (versions 1.18.0 to 1.18.2) allows a namespace-scoped policy to invoke a generator function with an arbitrary target namespace. The validation does not enforce namespace scope, enabling a user with permissions to create NamespacedMutatingPolicy objects to cause the admission controller to create resources in other namespaces.

Detection Guidance

Check Kyverno version with kubectl get deployment kyverno -n kyverno -o jsonpath='{.spec.template.spec.containers[0].image}' to see if it is between 1.18.0 and 1.18.2. Inspect NamespacedMutatingPolicy objects for generator.apply usage in matchConditions.

Impact Analysis

An attacker with access to create NamespacedMutatingPolicy objects could exploit this to create or modify resources like ConfigMaps, NetworkPolicies, Secrets, or RoleBindings in other namespaces. This could lead to unauthorized access, privilege escalation, or disruption of services.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability could lead to unauthorized data access or modification, violating confidentiality and integrity requirements in GDPR and HIPAA. Organizations using affected Kyverno versions may face compliance violations due to potential unauthorized resource creation.

Mitigation Strategies

Upgrade Kyverno to version 1.18.2 or later immediately. Remove or restrict access to create NamespacedMutatingPolicy objects until the upgrade is complete.

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