CVE-2026-22039

9.9 CRITICAL
Published: January 27, 2026 Modified: February 02, 2026
View on NVD

Description

Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. Versions prior to 1.16.3 and 1.15.3 have a critical authorization boundary bypass in namespaced Kyverno Policy apiCall. The resolved `urlPath` is executed using the Kyverno admission controller ServiceAccount, with no enforcement that the request is limited to the policy’s namespace. As a result, any authenticated user with permission to create a namespaced Policy can cause Kyverno to perform Kubernetes API requests using Kyverno’s admission controller identity, targeting any API path allowed by that ServiceAccount’s RBAC. This breaks namespace isolation by enabling cross-namespace reads (for example, ConfigMaps and, where permitted, Secrets) and allows cluster-scoped or cross-namespace writes (for example, creating ClusterPolicies) by controlling the urlPath through context variable substitution. Versions 1.16.3 and 1.15.3 contain a patch for the vulnerability.

AI Explanation

Get an AI-powered plain-language explanation of this vulnerability and remediation steps.

Login to generate AI explanation

CVSS v3.x Details

0.0 Low Medium High Critical 10.0
Vector String
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

Patch Vendor Advisory Exploit Third Party Advisory

3 reference(s) from NVD

Quick Stats

CVSS v3 Score
9.9 / 10.0
EPSS (Exploit Probability)
0.1%
16th percentile
Exploitation Status
Not in CISA KEV

Weaknesses (CWE)

Affected Vendors

kyverno