Improper input validation in Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- High
- Impact type
- —
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- Low · Low · None
- Fix status
- Deferred Red Hat: fix deferred
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat.
Summary
A flaw was found in KubeVirt's network annotation generator. When a tenant creates a VirtualMachineInstance with a Multus network configuration, the supplied networkName value is written verbatim into the launcher pod's v1.multus-cni.io/default-network annotation without format validation or sanitization. The only admission check rejects empty strings; no DNS-1123 format validation, JSON detection, or special character rejection is performed. When the ExternalNetResourceInjection Beta feature gate is enabled (off by default, cluster-admin only), the NAD lookup that would otherwise catch malformed names is skipped by design. A tenant with kubevirt.io:edit permissions can inject a JSON-formatted NetworkSelectionElement array specifying an arbitrary namespace, NAD name, static IP address, and MAC address. Multus on the node parses this JSON and attaches the launcher pod to the specified network attachment in any namespace, enabling cross-namespace network access and IP/MAC impersonation on network segments normally segregated from tenant workloads. The ExternalNetResourceInjection feature gate was introduced in KubeVirt v1.8.0 (first shipped in OpenShift Virtualization 4.21).
Why it matters now
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat | Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4 | — | — | No fix listed | CNA |
- Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4 VendorRed Hat Affected — Fixed in — No fix listed CNA
Remediation
No fixed version listed by the sources yet.
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Timeline
- 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-13434
- 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-9fjc-whw6-cqfc
References
More Red Hat Openshift Virtualization vulnerabilities
- TI-2023-23979 The HTTP/2 protocol allows a denial of service (server resource consumption) because… KEVCVSS 3.1HIGH 7.5
- TI-2023-26623 The SSH transport protocol with certain OpenSSH extensions, found in OpenSSH before 9.6… CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 5.9
- TI-2026-32429 Axios: Credential Theft and Response Hijacking via Prototype Pollution Gadget in Config Merge CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.7
- TI-2026-23208 Immutable.js: Improperly Controlled Modification of Object Prototype Attributes ('Prototype Pollution') in immutable CVSS 4.0HIGH 8.7
- TI-2020-11187 Improper privilege management in kubevirt CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.9
- TI-2026-11209 Kubevirt: virt-handler-rhel9: kubevirt: safepath symlink following in virt-handler… CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.3
Sources
- CVE-2026-13434 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-13434 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-9fjc-whw6-cqfc · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-13434 · Red Hat security data · CC BY 4.0
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