Privilege Escalation in github.com/aiven/aiven-operator (CVE-2026-39961)
Summary
Vulnerability in github.com/aiven/aiven-operator (CVE-2026-39961). Confidential information can be exposed externally. Mitigation: upgrade to 0.37.0 or later.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
Aiven Operator allows you to provision and manage Aiven Services from your Kubernetes cluster. From 0.31.0 to before 0.37.0, a developer with create permission on ClickhouseUser CRDs in their own namespace can exfiltrate secrets from any other namespace — production database credentials, API keys, service tokens — with a single kubectl apply. The operator reads the victim's secret using its ClusterRole and writes the password into a new secret in the attacker's namespace. The operator acts as a confused deputy: its ServiceAccount has cluster-wide secret read/write (aiven-operator-role ClusterRole), and it trusts user-supplied namespace values in spec.connInfoSecretSource.namespace without validation. No admission webhook enforces this boundary — the ServiceUser webhook returns nil, and no ClickhouseUser webhook exists. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.37.0.
Source: NIST National Vulnerability Database NVD GitHub Advisory
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-2026-39961 has been found in github.com/aiven/aiven-operator.
Confidential information can be exposed externally. CVSS score: 6.8/10.
What to do: upgrade github.com/aiven/aiven-operator to 0.37.0 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "github.com/aiven/aiven-operator CVE-2026-39961" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2026-39961 (github.com/aiven/aiven-operator) — CWE-269 / CVSS v3 6.8
Attack vector: remote (network-reachable) / no user interaction
Patched: 0.37.0 — 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/aiven/aiven-operator.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of github.com/aiven/aiven-operator.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 6.8/10). Confidential information can be exposed externally.
Update to 0.37.0.
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/aiven/aiven-operator' . 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
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1Identify exposure identify
grep -r 'github.com/aiven/aiven-operator' . | 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/aiven/aiven-operator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/aiven/aiven-operator to 0.37.0ステージング環境で 0.37.0 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 github.com
- advisory nvd.nist.gov
- advisory github.com
- package github.com
- patch github.com
- web github.com