Memory exhaustion in Knative pkg admission webhook via request body
Key facts
- Attack vector
- Network
- Privileges required
- Low
- User interaction
- None
- Attack complexity
- Low
- Impact type
- Denial of service
- Confidentiality · integrity · availability
- None · None · High
- Fix status
- Partial Red Hat: 13 without a fix
Attack profile from CVSS 3.1 · CNA. Fix status from CNA and Red Hat. Impact type from CWE-770.
Summary
Knative pkg versions before 0.0.0-20260531000007-52dbd5ece63f are affected. The admission webhook handler decodes attacker-supplied AdmissionReview requests without a body-size limit, which allocates memory without bounds (CWE-770). A client on the pod network can send one oversized POST request, so the controller pod runs out of memory and is OOM-killed. Downstream projects that use the shared webhook server, including Knative, Tekton, KEDA, Sigstore policy-controller and Kpack, inherit this behavior.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-02
Description from the CNA
Knative pkg provides common packages shared across Knative repositories. Prior to 0.0.0-20260531000007-52dbd5ece63f, the knative.dev/pkg/webhook admissionHandler in webhook/admission.go decodes an attacker-supplied AdmissionReview through json.NewDecoder(io.TeeReader(r.Body, &bodyBuffer)) under an http.HandlerFunc without an http.MaxBytesReader or equivalent body-size limit. A pod-network client can send one oversized POST to an admission webhook, causing the decoder and bodyBuffer to retain amplified copies of the request until the controller pod exhausts memory and is OOM-killed. Every downstream consumer using the shared webhook server inherits the vulnerable behavior, including Knative, Tekton, KEDA, Sigstore policy-controller, and Kpack. For consumers configured with failurePolicy=Fail, loss of the controller can interrupt admission; with failurePolicy=Ignore, the affected webhook is unavailable while other admissions continue. This issue is fixed in version 0.0.0-20260531000007-52dbd5ece63f.
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
Remediation
Update knative.dev/pkg to 0.0.0-20260531000007-52dbd5ece63f or later. Red Hat lists no available fix for Builds for Red Hat OpenShift, OpenShift Pipelines, OpenShift Serverless, Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 and other products, and it has no fix planned for Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4.
Written with Claude Haiku 5.5 from the sources below · 2026-11-02
- Fix · CNA pkg (knative) Fixed in 0.0.0-20260531000007-52dbd5ece63f
Vendor assessments
Red Hat
Red Hat rating: Moderate. Red Hat's page for this CVE →
| Product | Status | Plan or fix |
|---|---|---|
| Builds for Red Hat OpenShift | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Custom Metric Autoscaler operator for Red Hat Openshift | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| MCP Server for Red Hat OpenShift | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| OpenShift Lightspeed | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| OpenShift Pipelines | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| OpenShift Serverless | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift AI (RHOAI) | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Dev Spaces | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat OpenShift Virtualization 4 | Affected | No fix planned: Out of support scope |
| Red Hat Openshift Data Foundation 4 | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Trusted Artifact Signer | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
| Red Hat Web Terminal | Affected | No fix yet: Fix deferred |
Timeline
- 2026-10-27 Threatist record created from CVE-2026-54462
- 2026-10-27 Alias added: GHSA-j8gc-gxpv-w8rg
- 2026-10-28 Priority changed: MEDIUM → LOW
- 2026-10-29 Affected versions changed · Red Hat
- 2026-10-29 CVSS score added · Red Hat
- 2026-11-02 CISA SSVC decision points changed
- 2026-11-02 Priority changed: LOW → MEDIUM
References
More knative vulnerabilities
- TI-2022-20280 Credential exposure when running third-party builders in knative/func CVSS 3.1HIGH 7.4
- TI-2023-26552 Knative Serving vulnerable to attacker-controlled pod causing denial of service of autoscaler CVSS 3.1MEDIUM 6.5
Sources
- CVE-2026-54462 · CVE Program
- CVE-2026-54462 · NVD
- FIRST EPSS
- GHSA-j8gc-gxpv-w8rg · GitHub Advisory Database · CC BY 4.0
- CVE-2026-54462 · 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