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CVSS 9.6 · CRITICAL

CVE-2026-54523Cross-namespace privilege escalation in Kyverno

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.

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Analysis

A critical vulnerability in Kyverno allows attackers with local namespace permissions to create resources like Secrets, ConfigMaps, or RoleBindings in any other namespace. This effectively breaks Kubernetes namespace isolation and allows for full cluster privilege escalation.

Relevant roles

KubernetesCloudciberseguridadGoBackend

Severity

Score: 9.6(CRITICAL)
Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
AV: NETWORK
AC: LOW
PR: LOW
UI: NONE
S: CHANGED
C: HIGH
I: HIGH
A: NONE
Weakness (CWE): CWE-862

EPSS

No EPSS score yet (CVE may be too fresh).

Technical description

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.

Published: 8/26/2026, 3:16:48 PM
Last modified: 8/26/2026, 4:16:27 PM

References

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