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TI-2026-35185 Aliases CVE-2026-47680GHSA-jjrm-hr5f-673x

Source controller: Improper path handling allows traversal

Priority LOW 24CWE-23Published · Updated

Key facts

Attack vector
Network
Privileges required
Low
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low
Attack requirements
None
Impact type
—
Confidentiality · integrity · availability
None · Low · Low
Fix status
Fixed

Attack profile from CVSS 4.0 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and GitHub.

Summary

The source-controller is a Kubernetes operator, specialised in artifacts acquisition from external sources such as Git, OCI, Helm repositories and S3-compatible buckets. In versions 0.0.17 through 1.8.4, an actor with the ability to influence the contents of a bucket referenced by a `Bucket` resource can cause source-controller to write fetched object data to paths outside the per-reconciliation working directory. The corruption surface is bounded by source-controller's own and downstream Flux controllers' digest verification: source-controller verifies stored artifact digests during reconciliation and rebuilds on divergence; consumers (kustomize-controller, helm-controller) verify the digest of fetched artifacts and reject mismatches. These checks prevent a manipulated artifact from reaching the cluster, but an attacker can still write files anywhere the source-controller pod has permission to write. Separately, a user with permission to create or update `GitRepository` resources can cause source-controller to test for the existence of paths outside the cloned repository. Because the result is exposed via the resource's status, this allows limited enumeration of file paths on the controller pod. This surface exists only on source-controller v1.6.0 and later, where the sparse-checkout feature was introduced. This vulnerability was fixed in source-controller v1.8.5. There is no in-product workaround. Users should upgrade to a patched version. As a defense-in-depth measure for the GitRepository sparse-checkout surface, a `ValidatingAdmissionPolicy` (or a third-party policy engine such as Kyverno or OPA Gatekeeper) can be deployed to reject `GitRepository` resources whose `.spec.sparseCheckout` entries contain `..` or absolute path segments.

Why it matters now

Exploitation None reported CISA SSVC · not in CISA KEV
EPSS 0.00459 39th percentileScored 2026-11-07
Fix Fixed source-controller (fluxcd): 1.8.5github.com/fluxcd/source-controller (Go): 1.8.5

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

VendorProductAffected versionsFixed inStatusSource
fluxcdsource-controller0.0.17 to before 1.8.51.8.5Patch availableCNA
—github.com/fluxcd/source-controller (Go)0.0.17 to before 1.8.51.8.5Patch availableGHSA-jjrm-hr5f-673x
  • source-controller Vendorfluxcd Affected 0.0.17 to before 1.8.5 Fixed in 1.8.5 Patch available CNA
  • github.com/fluxcd/source-controller (Go) Vendor— Affected 0.0.17 to before 1.8.5 Fixed in 1.8.5 Patch available GHSA-jjrm-hr5f-673x

Remediation

  • Fix · CNA source-controller (fluxcd) Fixed in 1.8.5
  • Fix · GHSA-jjrm-hr5f-673x github.com/fluxcd/source-controller (Go) Fixed in 1.8.5 Advisory →

Timeline

  1. 2026-10-02 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-47680
  2. 2026-10-03 Alias added: GHSA-jjrm-hr5f-673x

References

  • TI-2022-08687 Improper path handling in kustomization files allows path traversal CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.9
  • TI-2022-08630 Improper kubeconfig validation allows arbitrary code execution CVSS 3.1CRITICAL 9.9
  • TI-2021-18089 Privilege escalation to cluster admin on multi-tenant environments CVSS 3.1HIGH 8.8
  • TI-2022-16473 Flux2 Helm Controller denial of service CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.7
  • TI-2022-16460 Flux CLI Workload Injection CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.8
  • TI-2022-08688 Improper path handling in Kustomization files allows for denial of service CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.7
See all 9 →

Sources