EUVD-2026-38233
GHSA-x82v-328r-gf3h
Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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ReconCompromise Windows worker node
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DeliverySteal WICD client credentials
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ExploitCraft CSR with system:wicd-nodes and system:masters
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InstallSubmit CSR to cluster API
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C2Auto-approver signs malicious certificate
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ExecuteAuthenticate as cluster-admin
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ImpactTake over OpenShift control plane
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A06:2025 - Insecure Design
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Least privilege enforcement
MITRE ATT&CK
1 technique across 1 tactic: Privilege Escalation The technique list with ATT&CK links and the kill-chain view is part of the Basic plan and up. |
| Exploitation Conditions | Requires prior compromise of a Windows worker node managed by WMCO in an OpenShift 4 cluster, and possession of valid WICD credentials on that node sufficient to submit a CSR. The cluster must be running the vulnerable WMCO with the WICD CSR auto-approver enabled (default in OpenShift for Windows Containers deployments). Exploitation is limited to clusters that actually deploy Windows worker nodes via WMCO; OpenShift clusters without Windows nodes are not exposed, and no user interaction is required once node-level access and WICD credentials are obtained. |
| Impact | The CVSS:3.1 vector AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H scores 8.8 and reflects the realistic attack model: an attacker must already control a Windows worker node (PR:L, AV:L) holding WICD credentials, but successful exploitation produces a scope change (S:C) into the control plane with full confidentiality, integrity, and availability impact - i.e., cluster takeover. EPSS and KEV signals were not provided in the input, and no POC references are listed, so this should be treated as a credible high-severity privilege-escalation primitive rather than confirmed active exploitation. The practical priority is high for clusters running Windows worker nodes because the precondition (a compromised Windows node) is a realistic post-compromise pivot, but irrelevant for OpenShift clusters that do not deploy WMCO. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An attacker compromises a Windows worker node (for example via a vulnerable workload or stolen node credentials) and reads the WICD client credentials from the node. Using those credentials, they craft a CSR whose subject includes both O=system:wicd-nodes (to satisfy the auto-approver) and O=system:masters, submit it, and the cluster signs it; the returned certificate authenticates the attacker as a cluster-admin, enabling secret exfiltration, workload tampering, and full control-plane takeover. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Jun 22, 2026
Privilege escalation in the Windows Machine Config Operator (WMCO) for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform allows a compromised Windows worker node holding WICD credentials to obtain a cluster-administrator client certificate. The WICD CSR auto-approver checks for the system:wicd-nodes organization but fails to reject additional organization values such as system:masters, enabling full cluster takeover. No public exploit identified at time of analysis, and the issue is not listed in CISA KEV.
RemediationAI
Patch availability per vendor advisory - apply the Red Hat-supplied WMCO update for your OpenShift 4 channel as described at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-54099 once the fixed WMCO version is published, and track https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2487950 for version specifics. As compensating controls until patched, harden Windows worker nodes to prevent theft of WICD credentials (restrict local administrator access, enforce node-level EDR, and rotate node credentials), audit pending and recently approved CSRs for organization fields containing system:masters or any value other than system:wicd-nodes, and consider temporarily disabling the WICD CSR auto-approver and approving CSRs manually - the trade-off is increased operational toil when scaling Windows node pools. Review audit logs for any clusterrolebinding or token usage tied to certificates issued with the system:masters group.
Affects your stack
Find out whether the stacks and servers you run are on an affected version.
Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
OpenShift's WMCO manages Windows worker nodes joining a Kubernetes cluster, and the Windows Instance Config Daemon (WICD) uses Kubernetes Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs) to enroll node identities. An auto-approver controller signs CSRs containing the system:wicd-nodes organization, but Kubernetes uses the certificate's Organization (O) field to populate group membership during RBAC evaluation, and system:masters is a built-in superuser group bound to cluster-admin. The root cause maps to CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management): the approver applies an allowlist check on one O value without enforcing that no other privileged groups are present. Affected CPEs cover Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 and Red Hat OpenShift for Windows Containers.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attacker needs local access to a compromised Windows node with WICD credentials (AV:L, PR:L); auto-approver flaw reliably yields cluster-admin, causing scope change and full CIA impact.
Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).
CVSS VectorVendor: redhat
DescriptionCVE.org
A flaw was found in the Windows Machine Config Operator (WMCO) for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform. The WICD CSR auto-approver validates that a Certificate Signing Request contains the organization system:wicd-nodes but does not reject additional organization values such as system:masters. A compromised Windows worker node that holds WICD credentials can submit a CSR that is auto-approved and signed by the cluster, yielding a client certificate that grants cluster-administrator privileges and enabling full cluster takeover.
Executive ViewAI
A privilege escalation vulnerability in Windows Machine Config Operator for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform could enable attackers who compromise a Windows worker node to escalate to cluster-administrator access. Although no public exploit has been identified at time of analysis, affected organizations face potential complete cluster compromise, including all containerized applications and sensitive data. Immediate credential and access control improvements are critical while awaiting vendor remediation.
Until vendor patch is released: (1) Implement strict access controls and automated rotation for WICD credentials; (2) Enable comprehensive audit logging on CSR submissions and approvals with alerting on anomalies; (3) Deploy network policies strictly limiting Windows worker node communication with cluster control plane; (4) Conduct regular certificate audits to identify and revoke overprivileged or unused credentials; (5) If operationally feasible, disable WMCO automatic CSR approval and require manual review with additional validation of certificate organization fields.
Threat Intelligence Overview
NVD
CVE.org
EPSS
Vulnrichment
VulDB
How this decision was reached
The engine reads each signal below and applies a fixed list of rules from top to bottom. The first rule that matches sets the recommended action – like a statement, every line is shown.
What every action level means
SSVC AssessmentENISA
Priority Score
Attack Technique
Privilege escalation occurs when an attacker leverages flaws in access control mechanisms to gain permissions beyond what they were originally granted.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
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Privilege escalation in Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management's multicloud-operators-subscription controller lets a low-pr
Remote code execution in libarchive on 32-bit systems allows unauthenticated attackers to execute arbitrary code via spe
Denial of service in libxml2 allows a remote attacker to crash any application that uses the library to XSD-validate an
Unauthenticated path traversal in gvproxy, the network forwarder shipped in the gvisor-tap-vsock package (used by Podman
Out-of-bounds read in the GnuTLS DTLS handshake reassembly logic lets remote unauthenticated attackers trigger an intege
Local privilege escalation in Performance Co-Pilot (PCP) on Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6 through 10 and OpenShift Containe
Local-to-domain-wide root privilege escalation in SSSD's LDAP sudo provider allows an authenticated LDAP directory user
Symlink-following file overwrite on the Ansible control node is possible in ansible-core when a user runs `ansible-galax
A use-after-free race condition in QEMU's 9pfs (virtfs) passthrough subsystem allows a malicious guest user to escape th
Exploit-DB