Injection attack in Helm
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- Required
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · High · None
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and GitHub.
Summary
Helm is open-source software which is essentially "The Kubernetes Package Manager". Helm is a tool for managing Charts. Charts are packages of pre-configured Kubernetes resources. In Helm from version 3.0 and before version 3.5.2, there a few cases where data loaded from potentially untrusted sources was not properly sanitized. When a SemVer in the `version` field of a chart is invalid, in some cases Helm allows the string to be used "as is" without sanitizing. Helm fails to properly sanitized some fields present on Helm repository `index.yaml` files. Helm does not properly sanitized some fields in the `plugin.yaml` file for plugins In some cases, Helm does not properly sanitize the fields in the `Chart.yaml` file. By exploiting these attack vectors, core maintainers were able to send deceptive information to a terminal screen running the `helm` command, as well as obscure or alter information on the screen. In some cases, we could send codes that terminals used to execute higher-order logic, like clearing a terminal screen. Further, during evaluation, the Helm maintainers discovered a few other fields that were not properly sanitized when read out of repository index files. This fix remedies all such cases, and once again enforces SemVer2 policies on version fields. All users of the Helm 3 should upgrade to the fixed version 3.5.2 or later. Those who use Helm as a library should verify that they either sanitize this data on their own, or use the proper Helm API calls to sanitize the data.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| helm | helm | > 3.0, < 3.5.2 | — | No fix listed | CNA |
| — | helm.sh/helm/v3 (Go) | 3.0.0 to before 3.5.2 | 3.5.2 | Patch available | GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx |
- helm Vendorhelm Affected > 3.0, < 3.5.2 Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
- helm.sh/helm/v3 (Go) Vendor— Affected 3.0.0 to before 3.5.2 Fixed in 3.5.2 Patch available GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx
Remediation
- Fix · GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx helm.sh/helm/v3 (Go) Fixed in 3.5.2 Advisory →
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Low. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
Not affected: 2 products
- Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2
- Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.2
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2021-21303
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx
References
Advisory 4
More Helm vulnerabilities
- TI-2024-16848 Dependency management path traversal in helm CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.4
- TI-2026-45154 Helm Files.Lines Denial of Service via Empty Chart Files CVSS 4.0MEDIUM 5.3
- TI-2023-10627 getHostByName Function Information Disclosure CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 4.3
- TI-2019-15264 An issue was discovered in Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) Helm through 3.13.3. CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.1
- TI-2019-13497 In Helm 2.x before 2.15.2, commands that deal with loading a chart as a directory or… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2019-16052 Improper certificate validation in helm CVSS 3.0CRITICAL 9.8
Sources
- CVE-2021-21303 · CVE Program
- CVE-2021-21303 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2021-21303 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences