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TI-2021-04403 Aliases CVE-2021-21303GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx

Injection attack in Helm

Priority LOW 32CWE-74Published · Updated

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

EPSS 0.01086 65th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed helm.sh/helm/v3 (Go): 3.5.2

SSVC decision points

Not available: CISA has not published SSVC decision points for this record.

Affected products

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
helmhelm> 3.0, < 3.5.2—No fix listedCNA
—helm.sh/helm/v3 (Go)3.0.0 to before 3.5.23.5.2Patch availableGHSA-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

CPE configurations NVD · 1

CPEVersionsRoleVendor
cpe:2.3:a:helm:helm:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*3.0.0 to before 3.5.2Vulnerablehelm
  • cpe:2.3:a:helm:helm:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions 3.0.0 to before 3.5.2 Vulnerable ·helm

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

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2021-21303
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-c38g-469g-cmgx

References

  • 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
See all 28 →

Sources