Privilege Escalation in github.com/rancher/rancher (CVE-2023-22651)
Summary
Vulnerability in github.com/rancher/rancher (CVE-2023-22651). Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover. Exploitable via local. Mitigation: upgrade to 0.0.0-20230424183121-6d9a175954c6 or later.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
Impact
A failure in the update logic of Rancher's admission Webhook may lead to the misconfiguration of the Webhook. This component enforces validation rules and security checks before resources are admitted into the Kubernetes cluster.
When the Webhook is operating in a degraded state, it no longer validates any resources, which may result in severe privilege escalations and data corruption.
The issue only affects users that upgrade from 2.6.x or 2.7.x to 2.7.2. Users that did a fresh install of 2.7.2 (and did not follow an upgrade path) are not affected.
The command below can be executed on the local cluster to determine whether the cluster is affected by this issue:
$ kubectl get validatingwebhookconfigurations.admissionregistration.k8s.io rancher.cattle.io
NAME WEBHOOKS AGE
rancher.cattle.io 0 19h
If the resulting webhook quantity is 0, the Rancher instance is affected.
Patches
Patched versions include release 2.7.3 and later versions.
Workarounds
If you are affected and cannot update to a patched Rancher version, the recommended workaround is to manually reconfigure the Webhook with the script below. Please note that the script must be run from inside the local cluster or with a kubeconfig pointing to the local cluster which has admin permissions.
#!/bin/bash
set -euo pipefail
function prereqs() {
if ! [ -x "$(command -v kubectl)" ]; then
echo "error: kubectl is not installed…
Source: OSV.dev (Open Source Vulnerabilities) NVD GitHub Advisory OSV
Auto-generated summary
Assembled by SecPulse from the source data (CVSS, CWE, affected versions) using templates — no AI involved. Check the original description and references below for exact details.
A vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-22651 has been found in github.com/rancher/rancher.
Attackers can target a specific entry point like local over the network to misuse the product.
Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
What to do: upgrade github.com/rancher/rancher to 0.0.0-20230424183121-6d9a175954c6 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "github.com/rancher/rancher CVE-2023-22651" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2023-22651 (github.com/rancher/rancher) — CWE-269
Attack vector: remote (network-reachable) / no user interaction
Attack surface: local
Patched: 0.0.0-20230424183121-6d9a175954c6 — apply immediately
Plan: 1) Audit SBOM/dependencies, 2) Stage→prod upgrade, 3) Add WAF/proxy monitoring on affected endpoints, 4) Hunt IOCs in logs.
Refs: see the GHSA / vendor advisory / patched release linked on this page.
A vulnerability (CWE-269) exists in github.com/rancher/rancher. Attackers reach the vulnerable code path via local.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of github.com/rancher/rancher. Attack surface: local.
Severity: ?. Successful exploitation can lead to full system takeover.
Update to 0.0.0-20230424183121-6d9a175954c6.
Until the patch is applied: disable the affected feature, apply WAF rules, or restrict access via network ACLs.
Search webserver/proxy logs for unusual request patterns matching this CVE's known IOCs. Run grep -r 'github.com/rancher/rancher' . against your dependency files (package-lock.json, requirements.txt, go.sum) to find affected services.
Response actions
Concrete steps and command examples for SOC/SRE teams to execute in order
-
1Identify exposure identify
grep -r 'github.com/rancher/rancher' . | grep -v node_modulesリポジトリと本番環境の依存ファイル (package-lock.json / requirements.txt / go.sum / Gemfile.lock 等) で
github.com/rancher/rancherを grep し、稼働しているサービス・バージョンを把握する。 -
2Apply patch patch
Upgrade github.com/rancher/rancher to 0.0.0-20230424183121-6d9a175954c6ステージング環境で 0.0.0-20230424183121-6d9a175954c6 に上げて回帰テスト → 本番反映。回帰テストはアプリの主要ハッピーパスを含めること。
-
3Post-deployment verification verify
Confirm patched version is live in productionパッチ適用後、ステージングで PoC または同等の悪用パターンを再現して脆弱性が閉じたことを確認。本番ではアクセスログ・WAF でアラート再発が無いか継続監視。
Affected packages
References
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- package github.com
- web github.com
- web bugzilla.suse.com
- web github.com