CVE-2021-41254

HIGH
Published Nov 12, 20214y ago · Modified Jun 17, 20262w ago
8.8 CVSS 3.1
High
Find Similar
Published Nov 12, 2021 4y ago
Last Modified Jun 17, 2026 2w ago

Description

kustomize-controller is a Kubernetes operator, specialized in running continuous delivery pipelines for infrastructure and workloads defined with Kubernetes manifests and assembled with Kustomize. Users that can create Kubernetes Secrets, Service Accounts and Flux Kustomization objects, could execute commands inside the kustomize-controller container by embedding a shell script in a Kubernetes Secret. This can be used to run `kubectl` commands under the Service Account of kustomize-controller, thus allowing an authenticated Kubernetes user to gain cluster admin privileges. In affected versions multitenant environments where non-admin users have permissions to create Flux Kustomization objects are affected by this issue. This vulnerability was fixed in kustomize-controller v0.15.0 (included in flux2 v0.18.0) released on 2021-10-08. Starting with v0.15, the kustomize-controller no longer executes shell commands on the container OS and the `kubectl` binary has been removed from the container image. To prevent the creation of Kubernetes Service Accounts with `secrets` in namespaces owned by tenants, a Kubernetes validation webhook such as Gatekeeper OPA or Kyverno can be used.

CVSS Details

Base Score
8.8
Exploitability
2.8
Impact
5.9
Vector string
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
Attack Vector Network
Attack Complexity Low
Privileges Required Low
User Interaction None
Scope Unchanged
Confidentiality High
Integrity High
Availability High

Threat Intelligence

No active exploitation signals — not in CISA KEV and no EPSS score yet.

Exploit & Patch Status
Public Exploit Known
No Patch Available

Weaknesses 1

CWE-78 OS Command Injection Injection

Affected Products 1

VendorProductVersionRange
fluxcdkustomize-controller* <0.15.0

References 1

  • github.com https://github.com/fluxcd/kustomize-controller/security/advisories/GHSA-35rf-v2jv-gfg7
    ExploitMitigationThird Party Advisory

Remediation

No remediation data recorded yet

Check vendor advisories and the NVD entry for patch availability.