External Secrets Operator vulnerable to privilege escalation
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Privilege escalation
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · High · High
- Fix status
- Fixed
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · NVD. Fix status from CNA and GitHub. Impact type from CWE-269.
Summary
External Secrets Operator is a Kubernetes operator that integrates external secret management systems. The external-secrets has a deployment called default-external-secrets-cert-controller, which is bound with a same-name ClusterRole. This ClusterRole has "get/list" verbs of secrets resources. It also has path/update verb of validatingwebhookconfigurations resources. This can be used to abuse the SA token of the deployment to retrieve or get ALL secrets in the whole cluster, capture and log all data from requests attempting to update Secrets, or make a webhook deny all Pod create and update requests. This vulnerability is fixed in 0.10.2.
Why it matters now
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- Poc
- Automatable
- No
- Technical impact
- Partial
The decision (Track, Attend, Act) also depends on your mission and well-being impact; see CISA's SSVC guide.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected versions | Fixed in | Status | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| external-secrets | external-secrets | before 0.10.2 | 0.10.2 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets (Go) | before 0.10.2 | 0.10.2 | Patch available | GHSA-qwgc-rr35-h4x9 |
- external-secrets Vendorexternal-secrets Affected before 0.10.2 Fixed in 0.10.2 Patch available CNA
- github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets (Go) Vendor— Affected before 0.10.2 Fixed in 0.10.2 Patch available GHSA-qwgc-rr35-h4x9
CPE configurations NVD · 1
| CPE | Versions | Role | Vendor |
|---|---|---|---|
| cpe:2.3:a:external-secrets:external_secrets_operator:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* | before 0.10.2 | Vulnerable | external-secrets |
- cpe:2.3:a:external-secrets:external_secrets_operator:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:* Versions before 0.10.2 Vulnerable ·external-secrets
Remediation
- Fix · CNA external-secrets (external-secrets) Fixed in 0.10.2
- Fix · GHSA-qwgc-rr35-h4x9 github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets (Go) Fixed in 0.10.2 Advisory →
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2024-45041
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-qwgc-rr35-h4x9
References
Patch 1
Advisory 2
Other 5
- https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/commit/0368b9806f660fa6bc52cbbf3c6ccdb27c58bb35
- https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets
- https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/blob/main/deploy/charts/external-secrets/templates/cert-controller-rbac.yaml#L27
- https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/blob/main/deploy/charts/external-secrets/templates/cert-controller-rbac.yaml#L49
- https://pkg.go.dev/vuln/GO-2024-3126
More external-secrets External Secrets Operator vulnerabilities
- TI-2024-24309 Insecure permissions in external-secrets v0.9.16 allows attackers to access sensitive… CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.8
- TI-2026-18338 External Secrets Operator insecurely retrieves secrets through the getSecretKey templating function CVSS 4.0CRITICAL 9.3
- TI-2026-27206 External Secrets Operator has DNS exfiltration via getHostByName in its v2 template engine CVSS 4.0HIGH 7.1
Sources
- CVE-2024-45041 · CVE Program
- CVE-2024-45041 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-qwgc-rr35-h4x9 · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
This product uses the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. Sources and licences