Helm Allows A Specially Crafted Chart Archive To Cause Out Of Memory Termination
Priority LOW 29CWE-770Published · Updated
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- None
- User interaction
- Required
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 10 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA, GitHub and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-770.
Summary
Helm is a tool for managing Charts. A chart archive file can be crafted in a manner where it expands to be significantly larger uncompressed than compressed (e.g., >800x difference). When Helm loads this specially crafted chart, memory can be exhausted causing the application to terminate. This issue has been resolved in Helm v3.17.3.
Why it matters now
Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00466 40th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Partial helm (helm): 3.17.3helm.sh/helm/v3 (Go): 3.17.3Red Hat: 10 without a fix
SSVC decision points
CISA ADP · SSVC 2.0.3
- Exploitation
- None
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| helm | helm | before 3.17.3 | 3.17.3 | Patch available | CNA |
| — | helm.sh/helm/v3 (Go) | before 3.17.3 | 3.17.3 | Patch available | GHSA-4hfp-h4cw-hj8p |
- helm Vendorhelm Affected before 3.17.3 Fixed in 3.17.3 Patch available CNA
- helm.sh/helm/v3 (Go) Vendor— Affected before 3.17.3 Fixed in 3.17.3 Patch available GHSA-4hfp-h4cw-hj8p
Remediation
- Fix · CNA helm (helm) Fixed in 3.17.3
- Fix · GHSA-4hfp-h4cw-hj8p helm.sh/helm/v3 (Go) Fixed in 3.17.3 Advisory →
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Deployment Validation Operator | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Multicluster Global Hub | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| OpenShift Service Mesh 2 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| OpenShift Service Mesh 3 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Advanced Cluster Security 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Developer Hub 1 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Trusted Application Pipeline | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| cert-manager Operator for Red Hat OpenShift | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2025-32386
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-4hfp-h4cw-hj8p
- 2026-10-27 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
References
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-2025-32386 · CVE Program
- CVE-2025-32386 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-4hfp-h4cw-hj8p · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2025-32386 · 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