CVE-2026-42876

MEDIUM

4.9

Description

External Secrets Operator reads information from a third-party service and automatically injects the values as Kubernetes Secrets. Prior to 2.4.1, a user who only has permission to create ExternalSecret resources can cause the operator to create a Secret that Kubernetes will automatically populate with a long-lived token for the specified service account. This effectively allows the user to impersonate any service account in the namespace without needing direct create permissions on TokenRequest or Secrets of that type. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.4.1.

CVE Details

CVSS v3.1 Score4.9

SeverityMEDIUM

CVSS VectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

Attack VectorNETWORK

ComplexityHIGH

Privileges RequiredLOW

User InteractionNONE

Published5/11/2026

Last Modified5/13/2026

Sourcenvd

Honeypot Sightings0

Weaknesses (CWE)

CWE-285

References

https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/commit/4ddd240af7fe88725d9857b9a0c198073502e288(security-advisories@github.com)

https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/releases/tag/v2.4.1(security-advisories@github.com)

https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/security/advisories/GHSA-fq7h-9x26-6j22(security-advisories@github.com)

IOC Correlations

No correlations recorded

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