Vulnerability in github.com/kubewarden/kubewarden-controller (CVE-2026-42541)
Summary
Vulnerability in github.com/kubewarden/kubewarden-controller (CVE-2026-42541). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. Exploitable via can_i. Mitigation: upgrade to 1.35.0 or later.
Original description
The description as published by the source.
Kubewarden is a policy engine for Kubernetes. Prior to , An attacker with privileged AdmissionPolicy or AdmissionPolicyGroup create permissions (which isn't the default) can craft a policy that makes use of the can_i host callback. The callback issues a SubjectAccessReview (SAR) requests to enumerate RBAC permissions of any user or service account across the cluster. can_i does not perform that check to enforce the context-aware allow-list and forwards the request directly to the callback handler, which executes a real SubjectAccessReview using policy-server privileges. This creates a policy-level authorization gap: can_i is effectively usable even when the policy has no context-aware resource grant. This is an information disclosure / reconnaissance issue, and not direct workload data exfiltration. The attacker learns permission information, such as whether specific service accounts can "get secrets", "create pods", or "bind clusterroles" in chosen namespaces. This vulnerability is fixed in .
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-2026-42541 has been found in github.com/kubewarden/kubewarden-controller.
Attackers can target a specific entry point like can_i over the network to misuse the product.
Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure. CVSS score: 4.3/10.
What to do: upgrade github.com/kubewarden/kubewarden-controller to 1.35.0 or later.
If unsure, ask your IT team or search "github.com/kubewarden/kubewarden-controller CVE-2026-42541" on the vendor's site.
CVE-2026-42541 (github.com/kubewarden/kubewarden-controller) — CWE-862 / CVSS v3 4.3
Attack vector: remote (network-reachable) / no user interaction
Attack surface: can_i / list_resources_by_namespace / list_resources_all / get_resource
Patched: 1.35.0 — 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-862) exists in github.com/kubewarden/kubewarden-controller. Attackers reach the vulnerable code path via can_i.
Check the vendor advisory for the affected versions of github.com/kubewarden/kubewarden-controller. Attack surface: can_i / list_resources_by_namespace / list_resources_all / get_resource.
Severity: Medium (CVSS 4.3/10). Risk of unauthorized operations or information disclosure.
Update to 1.35.0.
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/kubewarden/kubewarden-controller' . 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/kubewarden/kubewarden-controller' . | 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/kubewarden/kubewarden-controller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/kubewarden/kubewarden-controller to 1.35.0ステージング環境で 1.35.0 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
- web github.com
- web github.com
- web github.com
- web docs.kubewarden.io
- web github.com