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Multicluster Engine EUVDEUVD-2026-57439

| CVE-2026-73269 CRITICAL
Improper Privilege Management (CWE-269)
2026-08-12 redhat GHSA-h2w9-5qx3-frqq
9.9
CVSS 3.1 · Vendor: redhat
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Attack ChainAIDerived

Hypothetical attack flow derived from CVE metadata – not a confirmed exploit chain

  1. Access
    Obtain namespace-scoped API access
  2. Delivery
    Create ClusterCurator with crafted name
  3. Exploit
    Controller mints cluster-scoped ClusterRoleBinding
  4. Execution
    Assume cluster-wide privileges
  5. Impact
    Access secrets and delete hosted clusters

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

Exploitation requires an authenticated principal (PR:L) that already possesses rights to create a ClusterCurator custom resource within a namespace on an MCE hub cluster running the cluster-curator-controller. The concrete trigger named in the description is creating a ClusterCurator resource with a specific naming convention that causes the controller to create a cluster-scoped ClusterRoleBinding. Limiting factors: the attacker must have a valid cluster identity with namespace-level create permission on ClusterCurator objects (this is not remote-unauthenticated), the cluster-curator-controller must be deployed and reconciling (i.e., MCE/ACM with cluster curation in use), and exploitation is most meaningful in multi-tenant clusters where namespace isolation is the security boundary. No user interaction, no non-standard client, and no social engineering are needed once that namespace foothold exists.

Impact

The CVSS 3.1 vector CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H (9.9 Critical) is internally consistent with the description: a low-privileged authenticated user (PR:L) acting over the Kubernetes API (AV:N) with low complexity and no user interaction triggers a scope change (S:C) yielding full confidentiality, integrity and availability impact. This is a genuine priority in any multi-tenant MCE deployment because the barrier - the ability to create one custom resource in a namespace you already control - is trivial for an insider or for an attacker who has compromised any tenant workload with namespace API access. No EPSS score, KEV listing, or POC was provided in the input, so exploitation-probability signals are absent; the absence of KEV means there is no confirmed active exploitation, and the absence of a POC means no public exploit is identified at time of analysis. The main mitigating factor is that this is not a remote unauthenticated internet-facing bug: it requires an existing authenticated foothold with rights to create a ClusterCurator, so real-world risk concentrates in shared/multi-tenant clusters rather than single-tenant installations.

Exploit ScenarioDerived

A developer or CI service account holding only namespace-scoped access to an MCE hub cluster creates a ClusterCurator resource named according to the specific convention the controller trusts. The cluster-curator-controller reconciles it and creates a cluster-scoped ClusterRoleBinding granting the attacker cluster-wide rights, after which they read platform secrets and delete hosted clusters or node pools. No user interaction or elevated starting privileges are required and no public POC is identified at time of analysis.

Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Why: CRITICAL severity.
No patch listed yet 0.2% exploitation probability (EPSS)

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AnalysisAIv1 – Aug 12, 2026

Privilege escalation in Red Hat's multicluster engine for Kubernetes (MCE) lets a namespace-scoped authenticated user gain cluster-wide control by abusing the cluster-curator-controller. By creating a ClusterCurator custom resource with a specific, attacker-chosen naming convention, the user tricks the controller into minting a cluster-scoped ClusterRoleBinding on their behalf, breaking the namespace isolation boundary. There is no public exploit identified at time of analysis, but the CVSS 9.9 rating reflects that a low-privileged tenant can obtain secrets access, manage cluster actions, and destroy hosted clusters or node pools.

RemediationAI

Apply the Red Hat-provided update for multicluster engine for Kubernetes once released; the input data does not contain an exact fixed version, so obtain the precise patched build from the Red Hat advisory at https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-73269 and the Bugzilla tracker https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2514220 (no exact fix version provided in the input - verify with the vendor advisory). As compensating controls until patched: restrict who can create ClusterCurator resources by tightening RBAC so that only trusted automation service accounts hold create/update on the clustercurators custom resource in tenant namespaces (side effect: legitimate self-service cluster curation by tenants is blocked); deploy an admission policy (OPA/Gatekeeper or Kyverno) that rejects ClusterCurator objects whose names match the privilege-escalation naming convention or that are created by non-approved subjects (side effect: requires maintaining a policy and may block valid names); and audit existing cluster-scoped ClusterRoleBindings for unexpected subjects created by the curator service account to detect prior abuse (side effect: none, detection-only). Avoid co-locating untrusted tenants on MCE hub clusters until the fix is applied.

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

The affected component is the cluster-curator-controller, a Kubernetes operator shipped in Red Hat multicluster engine for Kubernetes (per CPE cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:multicluster_engine_for_kubernetes). Curation controllers reconcile a ClusterCurator custom resource to drive lifecycle automation (provisioning, upgrades, hooks) for managed/hosted clusters, and to do so they run with a highly privileged service account capable of creating RBAC objects. The root cause maps to CWE-269 (Improper Privilege Management): the controller derives the subject of a ClusterRoleBinding from user-controllable input (the resource name/naming convention) rather than from a trusted, fixed principal, so a tenant who can create a ClusterCurator in their own namespace effectively directs the controller to bind cluster-wide roles to a subject they control. Because ClusterRoleBindings are cluster-scoped, this crosses the namespace tenancy boundary that MCE relies on for multi-tenant separation.

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Severity by source

Vendor (redhat) PRIMARY 9.9 CRITICAL
AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
vuln.today AI 9.9 CRITICAL

Authenticated namespace user (PR:L) acts over the Kubernetes API (AV:N/AC:L), and the escalation crosses the tenancy boundary (S:C) yielding full C/I/A impact.

3.1 AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
4.0 AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
Red Hat 9.9 HIGH

Primary rating from Vendor (redhat).

CVSS VectorVendor: redhat

Attack Vector
Network
Attack Complexity
Low
Privileges Required
Low
User Interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

DescriptionCVE.org

A flaw was found in the cluster-curator-controller component. A local user, by creating a ClusterCurator resource with a specific naming convention, can trigger the creation of a cluster-scoped ClusterRoleBinding. This allows the user to escalate their privileges from namespace-local access to cluster-wide control. This privilege escalation grants broad permissions, including the ability to access and manipulate secrets, manage cluster actions, and delete hosted clusters or node pools.

Executive ViewAI

Why It Matters

Red Hat's multicluster engine for Kubernetes (MCE) contains a critical privilege escalation vulnerability (CVE-2026-73269, CVSS 9.9) that allows authenticated namespace-scoped users to gain cluster-wide administrative control, fundamentally breaking multi-tenancy security boundaries. An attacker with low-privileged access can retrieve sensitive secrets, manipulate hosted clusters, and destroy infrastructure, creating immediate risk of data breach and operational disruption. Organizations running MCE must treat this as a priority security incident requiring urgent triage and containment.

Business Impact: Severe
Compensating Controls

No vendor-released patch identified at time of analysis. Interim mitigations include: restricting ClusterCurator custom resource creation to a whitelist of trusted administrators via RBAC policies, implementing network-level access controls that limit direct communication with the cluster-curator-controller, enabling real-time audit logging and alerting on ClusterCurator resource creation or modification, and isolating MCE management traffic to dedicated network segments with enhanced monitoring and access controls.

Threat Intelligence Overview

EPSS Score
0.2%
Top 86% exploitable
Prevalence
Medium
Red Hat MCE/ACM common in enterprise Kubernetes fleets but not ubiquitous
Data Quality
7 sources
Confidence: High
EUVD NVD CVE.org EPSS Vulnrichment Vendor 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.

SignalValue
Severity CRITICAL
CISA KEV No
Public POC No
EPSS 0.2%
Patch available No
Active threat No
Deciding rule
CRITICAL severity
What every action level means
Emergency Immediate action required. Criteria: CRITICAL + in CISA KEV (actively exploited) without patch, OR CRITICAL + EPSS > 30% without patch, OR CRITICAL + active threat signals without patch.
Act Now Prioritize within 24-48h. Criteria: in KEV with patch available, OR CRITICAL + public POC, OR HIGH + EPSS > 10%, OR CRITICAL + active threat, OR any CRITICAL severity.
This Week Schedule remediation this week. Criteria: HIGH severity (CVSS 7.0-8.9). Patch within normal change window.
This Month Plan within 30 days. Criteria: MEDIUM severity (CVSS 4.0-6.9), lower exploitation probability. Include in regular patch cycle.
Monitor Track and reassess. Criteria: LOW severity (CVSS 0.1-3.9), minimal exploitation risk. No immediate action needed.

SSVC AssessmentENISA

SSVC Decision
Scheduled
Exploitation
None
System Exposure· derived
Open
Automatable
No
Human Impact
Very High
Technical Impact
Total

Priority Score

50
Low Medium High Critical
KEV: 0
EPSS: 0
CVSS: +50
PoC: 0
Weaponized: 0
Threat intel: 0
Gov advisory: 0

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

cpe:2.3:a:red_hat:multicluster_engine_for_kubernetes:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
CVE-2026-73268 CRITICAL
9.9 Aug 12

Privilege escalation and arbitrary code execution in Red Hat's multicluster engine (MCE) for Kubernetes lets a low-privi

CVE-2026-66795 CRITICAL
9.9 Aug 17

Privilege escalation in Red Hat Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes (MCE) lets a privileged service account on a managed

CVE-2026-66794 CRITICAL
9.3 Aug 19

Authentication and authorization bypass in the cluster-proxy-addon component of Red Hat's Multicluster Engine for Kubern

CVE-2026-101919 HIGH
8.8 Oct 05

Arbitrary code execution in the control plane of Red Hat Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes (HyperShift operator) is pos

CVE-2026-17107 HIGH
8.5 Jul 24

Header injection in the cluster-proxy service-proxy component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes (RHA

CVE-2026-4740 HIGH
8.2 Apr 07

Improper certificate validation in Red Hat's Open Cluster Management (OCM) and Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes allows

CVE-2026-73267 HIGH
7.7 Aug 21

Unauthorized ManagedCluster deletion in Red Hat Multicluster Engine (MCE) allows any tenant with standard ClusterClaim p

CVE-2026-75569 HIGH
7.7 Aug 19

Supply chain code injection in Red Hat Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes (mce-operator-bundle) enables arbitrary code e

CVE-2026-73266 HIGH
7.1 Aug 13

Unauthorized cross-tenant cluster takeover in Red Hat Multicluster Engine (MCE) for Kubernetes allows an authenticated t

CVE-2026-10805 MEDIUM
6.7 Jun 04

Local privilege escalation in NetworkManager's dhclient backend allows a low-privileged local user to execute arbitrary

CVE-2025-57851 MEDIUM
6.7 Apr 08

Container privilege escalation in Red Hat Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes allows authenticated local attackers to esc

CVE-2026-71299 MEDIUM
6.5 Oct 05

Unauthenticated REST API write access in Maestro, the messaging and resourcing component shipped with Red Hat Multiclust

Vendor StatusVendor

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