Bare Metal Operator (BMO) can expose any secret from other namespaces via BMCEventSubscription CRD
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Local
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Information disclosure
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- High · None · None
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 8 fixed, 7 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-200.
Summary
The Bare Metal Operator (BMO) implements a Kubernetes API for managing bare metal hosts in Metal3. Baremetal Operator enables users to load Secret from arbitrary namespaces upon deployment of the namespace scoped Custom Resource `BMCEventSubscription`. Prior to versions 0.8.1 and 0.9.1, an adversary Kubernetes account with only namespace level roles (e.g. a tenant controlling a namespace) may create a `BMCEventSubscription` in his authorized namespace and then load Secrets from his unauthorized namespaces to his authorized namespace via the Baremetal Operator, causing Secret Leakage. The patch makes BMO refuse to read Secrets from other namespace than where the corresponding BMH resource is. The patch does not change the `BMCEventSubscription` API in BMO, but stricter validation will fail the request at admission time. It will also prevent the controller reading such Secrets, in case the BMCES CR has already been deployed. The issue exists for all versions of BMO, and is patched in BMO releases v0.9.1 and v0.8.1. Prior upgrading to patched BMO version, duplicate any existing Secret pointed to by `BMCEventSubscription`'s `httpHeadersRef` to the same namespace where the corresponding BMH exists. After upgrade, remove the old Secrets. As a workaround, the operator can configure BMO RBAC to be namespace scoped, instead of cluster scoped, to prevent BMO from accessing Secrets from other namespaces, and/or use `WATCH_NAMESPACE` configuration option to limit BMO to single namespace.
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| metal3-io | baremetal-operator | = 0.9.0; before 0.8.1 | 0.8.1 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator/apis (Go) | 0.9.0 to before 0.9.1 | 0.9.1 | Patch available | GHSA-c98h-7hp9-v9hq |
| — | github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator/apis (Go) | before 0.8.1 | 0.8.1 | Patch available | GHSA-c98h-7hp9-v9hq |
- baremetal-operator Vendormetal3-io Affected = 0.9.0; before 0.8.1 Fixed in 0.8.1 Patch available CNA
- github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator/apis (Go) Vendor— Affected 0.9.0 to before 0.9.1 Fixed in 0.9.1 Patch available GHSA-c98h-7hp9-v9hq
- github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator/apis (Go) Vendor— Affected before 0.8.1 Fixed in 0.8.1 Patch available GHSA-c98h-7hp9-v9hq
Remediation
- Fix · CNA baremetal-operator (metal3-io) Fixed in 0.8.1
- Fix · GHSA-c98h-7hp9-v9hq github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator/apis (Go) Fixed in 0.9.1 Advisory →
- Fix · GHSA-c98h-7hp9-v9hq github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator/apis (Go) Fixed in 0.8.1 Advisory →
Red Hat 8 advisories
- RHSA-2024:11038 Released 2025-06-17 · Red Hat rating ImportantOpenShift Container Platform 4.19.0 bug fix and security update
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.19 openshift4/ose-aws-ebs-csi-driver-rhel9, openshift4/ose-azure-disk-csi-driver-rhel9, openshift4/ose-azure-file-csi-driver-rhel9 +14
- RHSA-2025:4677 Released 2025-05-15 · Red Hat rating ImportantOpenShift Container Platform 4.13.58 bug fix and security update
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.13 openshift4/ose-agent-installer-api-server-rhel8, openshift4/ose-agent-installer-node-agent-rhel8, openshift4/ose-agent-installer-orchestrator-rhel8 +6
- RHSA-2025:4422 Released 2025-05-08 · Red Hat rating ImportantOpenShift Container Platform 4.15.50 bug fix and security update
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.15 openshift4/ose-agent-installer-node-agent-rhel9, openshift4/ose-agent-installer-orchestrator-rhel8, openshift4/ose-baremetal-rhel9-operator +4
Show 5 more Red Hat advisories
- RHSA-2025:4409 Released 2025-05-08 · Red Hat rating ImportantOpenShift Container Platform 4.12.76 bug fix and security update
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 openshift4/ose-agent-installer-api-server-rhel8, openshift4/ose-baremetal-rhel8-operator, openshift4/ose-ibm-vpc-block-csi-driver-rhel8 +2
- RHSA-2025:4177 Released 2025-04-30 · Red Hat rating ImportantOpenShift Container Platform 4.14.51 bug fix and security update
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14 openshift4/ose-agent-installer-api-server-rhel8, openshift4/ose-baremetal-rhel8-operator, openshift4/ose-cluster-etcd-rhel8-operator +4
- RHSA-2025:4008 Released 2025-04-23 · Red Hat rating ImportantOpenShift Container Platform 4.16.39 bug fix and security update
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.16 openshift4/aws-kms-encryption-provider-rhel9, openshift4/azure-kms-encryption-provider-rhel9, openshift4/cloud-network-config-controller-rhel9 +47
- RHSA-2025:3798 Released 2025-04-16 · Red Hat rating ImportantOpenShift Container Platform 4.17.25 bug fix and security update
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 openshift4/azure-kms-encryption-provider-rhel9, openshift4/ose-agent-installer-node-agent-rhel9, openshift4/ose-aws-cluster-api-controllers-rhel9 +2
- RHSA-2025:3775 Released 2025-04-16 · Red Hat rating ImportantOpenShift Container Platform 4.18.9 bug fix and security update
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.18 openshift4/azure-kms-encryption-provider-rhel9, openshift4/ose-agent-installer-node-agent-rhel9, openshift4/ose-agent-installer-orchestrator-rhel9 +4
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Important. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Assisted Installer for Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 2 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes | Affected | No fix yet |
| Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenStack Platform 16.2 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenStack Platform 17.1 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenStack Platform 18.0 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.12 | Fixed | RHSA-2025:4409 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.13 | Fixed | RHSA-2025:4677 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14 | Fixed | RHSA-2025:4177 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.15 | Fixed | RHSA-2025:4422 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.16 | Fixed | RHSA-2025:4008 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.17 | Fixed | RHSA-2025:3798 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.18 | Fixed | RHSA-2025:3775 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.19 | Fixed | RHSA-2024:11038 |
Not affected: 9 products
- Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.12
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.13
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.14
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.15
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.16
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.17
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.18
- Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.19
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-29781
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-c98h-7hp9-v9hq
- 2026-11-04 Fix available: RHSA-2025:4008 · Red Hat
- 2026-11-04 Fix available: RHSA-2025:4177 · Red Hat
- 2026-11-04 Fix available: RHSA-2025:4422 · Red Hat
- 2026-11-04 Fix available: RHSA-2025:4409 · Red Hat
References
Other 6
- https://github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator/security/advisories/GHSA-c98h-7hp9-v9hq
- https://github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator/pull/2321
- https://github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator/pull/2322
- https://github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator/commit/19f8443b1fe182f76dd81b43122e8dd102f8b94c
- https://github.com/metal3-io/metal3-docs/blob/main/design/baremetal-operator/bmc-events.md
- https://github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator
More metal3-io vulnerabilities
- TI-2024-29397 BMO can expose particularly named secrets from other namespaces via BMH CRD CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 4.9
- TI-2024-20827 Ironic-image allows unauthenticated local access to Ironic API CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 4.7
Sources
- CVE-2025-29781 · CVE Program
- CVE-2025-29781 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-c98h-7hp9-v9hq · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2025-29781 · 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