CVE-2026-66793
Received Received - Intake

Governance Policy Container Image Override in Red Hat ACM

Publication date: 2026-08-18

Last updated on: 2026-08-18

Assigner: redhat-SADP

Description
A flaw was found in the governance-policy-addon-controller component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes. A user with permissions to annotate the namespaced ManagedClusterAddOn resource can override the governance-policy container image. This allows an attacker to run a controlled image with cluster-admin privileges on the managed cluster, leading to arbitrary code execution and privilege escalation.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-08-18
Last Modified
2026-08-18
Generated
2026-08-18
AI Q&A
2026-08-18
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-66793
EUVD
EUVD-2026-60951

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 1 associated CPE
Vendor Product Version / Range
red_hat advanced_cluster_management_for_kubernetes *

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Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-20 The product receives input or data, but it does not validate or incorrectly validates that the input has the properties that are required to process the data safely and correctly.

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability is in Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes. A user with permissions to annotate the namespaced ManagedClusterAddOn resource can override the governance-policy container image. This allows running a controlled image with cluster-admin privileges on the managed cluster, leading to arbitrary code execution and privilege escalation.

Detection Guidance

To detect this vulnerability, audit users with permissions to annotate ManagedClusterAddOn resources. Check for unauthorized container image overrides in governance-policy deployments. Use commands like kubectl get ManagedClusterAddOn -A to list resources and kubectl describe ManagedClusterAddOn <name> -n <namespace> to inspect annotations for suspicious image references.

Impact Analysis

An attacker could exploit this to run malicious code with high privileges on your Kubernetes cluster. This could lead to unauthorized access, data breaches, or disruption of services. Systems with this component installed are at risk if permissions are not properly restricted.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability could lead to unauthorized access or data breaches, violating confidentiality and integrity requirements in GDPR and HIPAA. Compliance may be compromised if sensitive data is exposed or altered due to the privilege escalation.

Mitigation Strategies

Immediately restrict permissions to annotate ManagedClusterAddOn resources to only trusted administrators. Audit and remove unnecessary permissions. Ensure only approved container images are used by validating image sources. Regularly review and audit these permissions to prevent misuse.

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