CVE-2023-26484
On a compromised KubeVirt node, the virt-handler service account can be used to modify all node specs
- Published
- Updated
- Reserved
- Assigned by
- GitHub_M
Description
KubeVirt is a virtual machine management add-on for Kubernetes. In versions 0.59.0 and prior, if a malicious user has taken over a Kubernetes node where virt-handler (the KubeVirt node-daemon) is running, the virt-handler service account can be used to modify all node specs. This can be misused to lure-in system-level-privileged components which can, for instance, read all secrets on the cluster, or can exec into pods on other nodes. This way, a compromised node can be used to elevate privileges beyond the node until potentially having full privileged access to the whole cluster. The simplest way to exploit this, once a user could compromise a specific node, is to set with the virt-handler service account all other nodes to unschedulable and simply wait until system-critical components with high privileges appear on its node. No patches are available as of time of publication. As a workaround, gatekeeper users can add a webhook which will block the `virt-handler` service account to modify the spec of a node.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 20 days later
· 20 days later
Published
- 24 months later
· 24 months later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | High8.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High8.2 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.61% · top 50% of all CVEs (7 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: High 8.2.
Weakness
Affected products
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Gokubevirt.io/kubevirtGHSA-cp96-jpmq-xrr2 (opens in a new tab)
References (2)
- https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/security/advisories/GHSA-cp96-jpmq-xrr2 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/issues/9109 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-cp96-jpmq-xrr2 (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://trackcve.app/cve/CVE-2023-26484)Record last updated .