CVE-2026-72640
Received Received - Intake

ECK Operator Secret Reference Privilege Escalation

Publication date: 2026-08-13

Last updated on: 2026-08-13

Assigner: Elastic

Description
The Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK) operator reads a list of secret references from an annotation on secrets it manages, and it accepts the namespace recorded in each reference without validating that the reference is authorized for the resource being reconciled. A user whose Kubernetes permissions are limited to their own namespace can write that annotation, trigger a reconcile, and cause the operator to use its cluster-wide secret permissions to copy the contents of a secret from any other namespace into a secret the user can read.

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Meta Information

Published
2026-08-13
Last Modified
2026-08-13
Generated
2026-08-14
AI Q&A
2026-08-13
EPSS Evaluated
N/A
NVD
CVE-2026-72640
EUVD
EUVD-2026-58286

Affected Vendors & Products

Showing 3 associated CPEs
Vendor Product Version / Range
elastic cloud_on_kubernetes *
elastic cloud_on_kubernetes to 3.4.1 (inc)
elastic cloud_on_kubernetes 3.5.0

Helpful Resources

Exploitability

CWE
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KEV
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CWE ID Description
CWE-441 The product receives a request, message, or directive from an upstream component, but the product does not sufficiently preserve the original source of the request before forwarding the request to an external actor that is outside of the product's control sphere. This causes the product to appear to be the source of the request, leading it to act as a proxy or other intermediary between the upstream component and the external actor.

Attack-Flow Graph

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Executive Summary

This vulnerability in Elastic Cloud on Kubernetes (ECK) allows a user with limited namespace permissions to exploit the operator's cluster-wide secret permissions. The ECK operator reads secret references from annotations without validating if the user is authorized to access secrets in other namespaces. This can lead to unauthorized disclosure of secrets from any namespace the user cannot normally access.

Detection Guidance

Check if your ECK operator version is below 3.5.0 using kubectl get deployment -n elastic-system eck-operator-controller-manager -o jsonpath='{.spec.template.spec.containers[0].image}'. If the version is older, the cluster is vulnerable. Review secrets with annotations referencing other namespaces for unauthorized access.

Impact Analysis

If you are using ECK versions up to 3.4.1, an attacker with limited namespace access could read sensitive secrets from other namespaces. This could expose confidential data such as credentials, API keys, or configuration details, potentially leading to further security breaches or data leaks.

Compliance Impact

This vulnerability could lead to unauthorized access to sensitive data, violating compliance requirements such as GDPR (data protection) and HIPAA (health information privacy). Unauthorized disclosure of personal or health data may result in legal penalties, reputational damage, and loss of trust.

Mitigation Strategies

Upgrade the ECK operator to version 3.5.0 or later immediately. If upgrading is not possible, there are no effective workarounds, so upgrading is the only mitigation. Monitor for unauthorized secret access in logs.

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