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CVE-2026-42541

4.3 · MEDIUM

Kubewarden is a policy engine for Kubernetes.

Published May 12, 2026CWE-862EPSS 0.27%

Overview

CVE-2026-42541 is a medium-severity vulnerability. It was published on May 12, 2026 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 4.3 (MEDIUM).

This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 4.3, rated MEDIUM. It can be exploited remotely over the network. Some level of privileges is required for exploitation.

Technical description

Kubewarden is a policy engine for Kubernetes. Prior to , An attacker with privileged AdmissionPolicy or AdmissionPolicyGroup create permissions (which isn't the default) can craft a policy that makes use of the can_i host callback. The callback issues a SubjectAccessReview (SAR) requests to enumerate RBAC permissions of any user or service account across the cluster. can_i does not perform that check to enforce the context-aware allow-list and forwards the request directly to the callback handler, which executes a real SubjectAccessReview using policy-server privileges. This creates a policy-level authorization gap: can_i is effectively usable even when the policy has no context-aware resource grant. This is an information disclosure / reconnaissance issue, and not direct workload data exfiltration. The attacker learns permission information, such as whether specific service accounts can "get secrets", "create pods", or "bind clusterroles" in chosen namespaces. This vulnerability is fi

Remediation

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-42541?

CVE-2026-42541 is a medium-severity vulnerability. It was published on May 12, 2026 and has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 4.3 (MEDIUM).

How severe is CVE-2026-42541?

This vulnerability has a CVSS 3.1 base score of 4.3, rated MEDIUM. It can be exploited remotely over the network. Some level of privileges is required for exploitation.

How do I fix or remediate CVE-2026-42541?

Check the references section for vendor advisories, patches, and mitigation guidance. If immediate patching is not possible, review the CVSS vector to understand the attack surface and apply compensating controls such as network segmentation or access restrictions.

How can CyberStrike help with CVE-2026-42541?

CyberStrike is an open-source, AI-augmented pentesting engine. Rather than flag a version number, it tests whether an issue like CVE-2026-42541 is actually reachable in your own applications and APIs, then verifies each finding before reporting it. That tells you if the weakness is a real, exploitable risk in your environment or a false positive you can safely deprioritize.

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