What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-41068?

CVE-2026-41068 has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 7.7 (High). CVSS vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N. EPSS exploitation probability: 0.0%.

Which versions of Kyverno are affected by CVE-2026-41068?

Kyverno 1.17.x contains a privilege escalation vulnerability allowing authenticated namespace administrators to read ConfigMaps across any Kubernetes namespace by bypassing RBAC controls, creating…. A patch is available.

How to fix or mitigate CVE-2026-41068?

Within 24 hours: Identify all Kyverno 1.17.x deployments using `helm list` and `kubectl get deployment -n kyverno` across all clusters. Within 7 days: Upgrade to Kyverno 1.17.2 or later using `helm upgrade kyverno kyverno/kyverno --version 1.17.2 -n kyverno`. Within 30 days: Audit ConfigMap access logs and conduct namespace-level RBAC reviews to identify potential unauthorized cross-namespace reads during the vulnerability window.

Kyverno CVE-2026-41068

EUVD-2026-25382 HIGH

Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863)

2026-04-24 GitHub_M

GHSA-cvq5-hhx3-f99p

Kubernetes Authentication Bypass Privilege Escalation Suse

7.7

CVSS 3.1 · GitHub Advisory

Severity by source

GitHub Advisory PRIMARY

7.7 HIGH

AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N

SUSE

HIGH

qualitative

Primary rating from GitHub Advisory.

CVSS VectorGitHub Advisory

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N

Attack Vector

Network

Attack Complexity

Low

Privileges Required

Low

User Interaction

None

Scope

Changed

Confidentiality

High

Integrity

None

Availability

None

Lifecycle Timeline

Patch released

Apr 27, 2026 - 17:48 nvd

Patch available

Re-analysis Queued

Apr 24, 2026 - 14:52 vuln.today

cvss_changed

Patch available

Apr 24, 2026 - 05:01 EUVD

Analysis Generated

Apr 24, 2026 - 04:30 vuln.today

EUVD ID Assigned

Apr 24, 2026 - 04:00 euvd

EUVD-2026-25382

Analysis Generated

Apr 24, 2026 - 04:00 vuln.today

CVE Published

Apr 24, 2026 - 03:14 nvd

HIGH 7.7

DescriptionGitHub Advisory

Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. The patch for CVE-2026-22039 fixed cross-namespace privilege escalation in Kyverno's apiCall context by validating the URLPath field. However, the ConfigMap context loader has the identical vulnerability - the configMap.namespace field accepts any namespace with zero validation, allowing a namespace admin to read ConfigMaps from any namespace using Kyverno's privileged service account. This is a complete RBAC bypass in multi-tenant Kubernetes clusters. An updated fix is available in version 1.17.2.

AnalysisAI

Cross-namespace privilege escalation in Kyverno 1.17.x allows authenticated namespace administrators to bypass RBAC controls and read ConfigMaps from any Kubernetes namespace. The vulnerability exploits unvalidated configMap.namespace field in Kyverno's ConfigMap context loader, enabling attackers to leverage Kyverno's privileged service account permissions. This is a regression following incomplete fix for CVE-2026-22039, which addressed the same issue in apiCall context but missed the ConfigMap loader. Patch available in version 1.17.2. CVSS 7.7 with Changed Scope indicates significant multi-tenant cluster risk; EPSS data not available but the regression nature and RBAC bypass impact warrant immediate patching in multi-tenant environments.

Technical ContextAI

Kyverno is a Kubernetes-native policy engine that operates with elevated cluster privileges to enforce policies across namespaces. The vulnerability resides in Kyverno's ConfigMap context loader, which allows policy authors to reference external ConfigMaps as context data sources. The configMap.namespace parameter accepts arbitrary namespace values without validation against the requesting user's RBAC permissions. When a policy containing a ConfigMap context is evaluated, Kyverno's service account (which has cluster-wide read access) fetches the ConfigMap regardless of whether the policy author has permissions to that namespace. This violates the principle of least privilege and creates a confused deputy problem where Kyverno acts as a privilege escalation proxy. The root cause is CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization), specifically missing authorization checks in the context loading phase. This mirrors CVE-2026-22039's URLPath validation issue but affects a different code path, indicating incomplete threat modeling during the original fix.

RemediationAI

Upgrade to Kyverno version 1.17.2 or later, as confirmed by vendor advisory GHSA-cvq5-hhx3-f99p and fix commit bbf3e5c01391d612968440659028ae98e565a777. For clusters unable to immediately upgrade, implement these compensating controls: First, audit all Kyverno policies for ConfigMap context usage with kubectl get clusterpolicies,policies --all-namespaces -o yaml | grep -A5 'configMap:' and review namespace references for cross-namespace access patterns. Second, restrict policy creation permissions to cluster administrators only by removing create/update verbs for Policy and ClusterPolicy resources from namespace-scoped RoleBindings (trade-off: reduces self-service policy management). Third, move sensitive ConfigMaps to a dedicated restricted namespace with network policies blocking pod access, relying on Kyverno's inability to enforce network-level isolation (trade-off: requires ConfigMap migration and application reconfiguration). Fourth, enable Kubernetes audit logging for ConfigMap read events from Kyverno's service account to detect exploitation attempts with audit.k8s.io/v1 rules (trade-off: increased log volume and analysis overhead). None of these workarounds fully mitigate the vulnerability; upgrade remains the only complete remediation. Vendor advisory: https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/security/advisories/GHSA-cvq5-hhx3-f99p.