EUVD-2026-50411
GHSA-x8x8-qp2x-c2mj
Attack ChainAIDerived
Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain
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AccessAuthenticate as read-only superuser
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DeliveryEnumerate robot accounts across foreign repositories
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ExploitRead exposed robot tokens
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ExecutionAuthenticate to registry as robot
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ImpactPush malicious or pull private images
Vulnerability Assessment
| Weakness |
CWE
OWASP Top 10:2025
A01:2025 - Broken Access Control
ASVS 5.0
V8 - Authorization Authorization logic validation
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 | Exploitation requires the attacker to already hold an account listed in Quay's GLOBAL_READONLY_SUPER_USERS configuration - this specific role assignment is the exact prerequisite. Given that role, no repository membership, no additional privilege, and no user interaction is needed to read robot tokens for arbitrary repositories (AC:L, UI:N). The primary limiting factor is that this is not remotely reachable by an unauthenticated or ordinary user: only principals already granted the read-only superuser tier are affected (CVSS PR:H), so environments that never populate GLOBAL_READONLY_SUPER_USERS, or grant it only to full administrators, face no additional exposure from this flaw. |
| Impact | The CVSS 3.1 base score is 7.2 (High) with vector AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H. The high privileges required (PR:H) is the dominant limiting factor: the attacker must already hold the GLOBAL_READONLY_SUPER_USERS role, an elevated administrative assignment, so this is primarily a trust-boundary and separation-of-duties failure rather than an externally reachable flaw. Given that precondition, exploitation is trivial (AC:L, no user interaction) and network-accessible, and the impact is severe because stolen robot tokens yield full read/write over repositories (C:H/I:H/A:H). EPSS is not provided and the CVE is not in CISA KEV, so there is no evidence of active exploitation or mass-scanning interest - consistent with a vulnerability that requires insider-level privilege and is therefore targeted rather than opportunistic. No POC has been published. Net priority: high for organizations that actually delegate a read-only superuser tier to less-trusted operators; lower where that role is held only by full administrators who already have equivalent access. |
| Exploit ScenarioDerived | An operator or auditor is granted read-only global superuser access under the assumption they cannot modify anything. They browse to robot accounts of repositories they do not belong to, read the exposed tokens, and then authenticate to the registry as those robots - pulling private images or pushing malicious/backdoored images that downstream CI/CD and Kubernetes clusters will trust and deploy. No user interaction or exploit tooling is required beyond normal Quay UI/API use. |
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Alert meAnalysisAIv1 – Jul 29, 2026
Robot account token disclosure in Red Hat Quay 3 allows a user assigned to the GLOBAL_READONLY_SUPER_USERS role to read the tokens of robot accounts belonging to repositories they are not a member of. Because these tokens are long-lived registry credentials, the read-only superuser can escalate a view-only role into full impersonation of any robot account, gaining whatever push/pull and repository permissions that robot holds. No public exploit identified at time of analysis; not listed in CISA KEV.
RemediationAI
No vendor-released patch version is identified in the provided data - monitor the Red Hat CVE page (https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-18255) and Bugzilla 2508454 (https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2508454) for the errata (RHSA/RHBA) and upgrade Quay 3 to the fixed build as soon as it is published. As an immediate compensating control, remove or minimize accounts in the GLOBAL_READONLY_SUPER_USERS list and restrict that role to fully trusted administrators only, since it currently confers robot-token read access it should not have; the trade-off is loss of delegated read-only global visibility for auditors or support staff. Additionally, rotate any robot account tokens that may have been exposed to read-only superusers and audit access logs for anomalous robot-account authentication, accepting that token rotation will break any automation still using the old credentials until reconfigured.
Affects your stack
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Checking this CVE against your own stacks and servers is part of the Basic plan and up.
Technical ContextAI · show details
Red Hat Quay is an enterprise container image registry. Robot accounts are non-human service identities used to automate image pull/push in CI/CD and Kubernetes deployments, each authenticated by a static long-lived token that functions as a bearer credential. The GLOBAL_READONLY_SUPER_USERS setting is intended to grant global visibility across the registry without any write capability. The root cause maps to CWE-863 (Incorrect Authorization): the authorization check that gates robot-token visibility fails to enforce repository membership for this role, so the read-only superuser is granted access to a secret it should never be able to read. The affected component is red_hat_quay_3 (cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:red_hat_quay_3), and Red Hat classifies this as an authentication/authorization bypass.
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- Exploit and PoC references, threat intelligence from 22 sources
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Severity by source
AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Requires the elevated GLOBAL_READONLY_SUPER_USERS role so PR:H; network-accessible with no interaction (AV:N/AC:L/UI:N), and leaked robot tokens grant full repository read/write, so C/I/A:H.
Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).
CVSS VectorVendor: redhat
DescriptionCVE.org
A flaw was found in Quay. A user configured in GLOBAL_READONLY_SUPER_USERS is able to view robot account tokens for repositories they are not a member of, allowing an attacker with read-only superuser privileges to impersonate any robot account.
Executive ViewAI
A vulnerability in Red Hat Quay 3 enables read-only administrators to extract long-lived container registry credentials and escalate to full repository access. No public exploit has been identified, but organizations using Quay face supply chain risk from potential unauthorized image modification and repository access. Without a vendor patch, immediate action is required to rotate credentials and restrict administrative access.
Restrict GLOBAL_READONLY_SUPER_USERS role to only essential personnel and immediately rotate all active robot account tokens; implement comprehensive audit logging for all token access and registry operations; establish monitoring for suspicious container push/pull activity that may indicate credential misuse; evaluate migration to read-only service accounts to eliminate exposure from human admin users; segment Quay 3 deployments to limit blast radius if compromise occurs.
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
Authentication bypass attacks exploit flaws in the verification mechanisms that control access to systems and applications.
Affected Products (CPE)CVE.org
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