GCVE Workshop - 22 September 2026 (14:00-18:00), Luxembourg Before The Vulnopticon Conference - Registration
Vulnerability from bitnami_vulndb
Published
2026-09-02 14:44
Modified
2026-09-02 15:04
Summary
Kyverno: NamespacedGeneratingPolicy generator.apply() namespace argument unvalidated -- background controller creates RoleBindings in any namespace including kube-system
Details

Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. From 1.18.0 until 1.18.2, the NamespacedMutatingPolicy CEL compiler exposes the generator library to matchConditions, allowing a namespace-scoped policy to invoke generator.apply(namespace, resources) with an arbitrary target namespace. The validation in pkg/cel/policies/mpol/validate.go checks that the policy compiles but does not enforce namespace scope, and GenerateResources in pkg/cel/libs/context.go does not reject the cross-namespace target. A user who can create NamespacedMutatingPolicy objects in one namespace can cause the admission controller, operating with cluster-wide privileges, to create ConfigMaps, NetworkPolicies, Secrets, RoleBindings, and other resources in another namespace, enabling unauthorized modification and potential privilege escalation. This issue is fixed in version 1.18.2.

To clipboard 

{
  "affected": [
    {
      "package": {
        "ecosystem": "Bitnami",
        "name": "kyverno",
        "purl": "pkg:bitnami/kyverno"
      },
      "ranges": [
        {
          "events": [
            {
              "introduced": "1.18.0"
            },
            {
              "fixed": "1.18.2"
            }
          ],
          "type": "SEMVER"
        }
      ],
      "severity": [
        {
          "score": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N",
          "type": "CVSS_V3"
        }
      ]
    }
  ],
  "aliases": [
    "CVE-2026-54523"
  ],
  "database_specific": {
    "cpes": [
      "cpe:2.3:a:kyverno:kyverno:*:*:*:*:*:go:*:*"
    ],
    "severity": "Critical"
  },
  "details": "Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. From 1.18.0 until 1.18.2, the NamespacedMutatingPolicy CEL compiler exposes the generator library to matchConditions, allowing a namespace-scoped policy to invoke generator.apply(namespace, resources) with an arbitrary target namespace. The validation in pkg/cel/policies/mpol/validate.go checks that the policy compiles but does not enforce namespace scope, and GenerateResources in pkg/cel/libs/context.go does not reject the cross-namespace target. A user who can create NamespacedMutatingPolicy objects in one namespace can cause the admission controller, operating with cluster-wide privileges, to create ConfigMaps, NetworkPolicies, Secrets, RoleBindings, and other resources in another namespace, enabling unauthorized modification and potential privilege escalation. This issue is fixed in version 1.18.2.",
  "id": "BIT-kyverno-2026-54523",
  "modified": "2026-09-02T15:04:30.450Z",
  "published": "2026-09-02T14:44:00.671Z",
  "references": [
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/commit/0919553c0ea1904f8d891280c92018da97946a06"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/commit/5164bcdeda5b57678bc2d7a03ecc2cbb02982dae"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/pull/16238"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/releases/tag/v1.18.2"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/security/advisories/GHSA-79gf-7frw-68m9"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://github.com/kyverno/sdk/commit/6573937441443e1ba5af9fbb28d5c0f20297f9df"
    },
    {
      "type": "WEB",
      "url": "https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-54523"
    }
  ],
  "schema_version": "1.6.2",
  "summary": "Kyverno: NamespacedGeneratingPolicy generator.apply() namespace argument unvalidated -- background controller creates RoleBindings in any namespace including kube-system"
}



Log in or create an account to share your comment.




Tags
Taxonomy of the tags.





Forecast uses a logistic model when the trend is rising, or an exponential decay model when the trend is falling. Fitted via linearized least squares.

Sightings

Author Source Type Date Other

Nomenclature

  • Seen: The vulnerability was mentioned, discussed, or observed by the user.
  • Confirmed: The vulnerability has been validated from an analyst's perspective.
  • Published Proof of Concept: A public proof of concept is available for this vulnerability.
  • Exploited: The vulnerability was observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Patched: The vulnerability was observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not exploited: The vulnerability was not observed as exploited by the user who reported the sighting.
  • Not confirmed: The user expressed doubt about the validity of the vulnerability.
  • Not patched: The vulnerability was not observed as successfully patched by the user who reported the sighting.


Detection rules are retrieved from Rulezet.