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CVE-2026-42876 Details

ANALYZED

This CVE record has been analyzed and enriched by NVDAPI.com as an independent party.

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.

Metrics

CVSS 3.x Severity and Vector Strings:

VolerionCVSS-B:7.1 HIGHVector:CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:L/A:N

CNA: [email protected]CVSS-B:4.9 MEDIUMVector:CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:L/I:L/A:N

References to Advisories, Solutions, and Tools

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URL	Source(s)	Tag(s)
https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/commit/4ddd240af7fe88725d9857b9a0c198073502e288	[email protected]	Source CodeVendor
https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/releases/tag/v2.4.1	[email protected]	Release NotesVendor
https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/security/advisories/GHSA-fq7h-9x26-6j22	[email protected]	AdvisoryRemedyVendor

Weakness Enumeration

CWE-ID	CWE Name	Source
CWE-285	Improper Authorization	[email protected]

Affected Products

Product	Versions
External Secrets Operator	> 0.1.0 (semver)
CPE cpe:2.3:a:external-secrets:external_secrets_operator:::::::: Remediation Upgrade: 2.4.1moderate effort Mitigation:low effort Add admission control logic to prevent the use of Templates targeting undesired Types. Mitigation:low effort Remove Service Account Token generation via kube-controller-manager flags. Mitigation:low effort Restrict User RBAC on production clusters and sensitive namespaces.

Product

Versions

External Secrets Operator

> 0.1.0 (semver)

CPE

cpe:2.3:a:external-secrets:external_secrets_operator:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

Remediation

Upgrade: 2.4.1moderate effort
Mitigation:low effort
Add admission control logic to prevent the use of Templates targeting undesired Types.
Mitigation:low effort
Remove Service Account Token generation via kube-controller-manager flags.
Mitigation:low effort
Restrict User RBAC on production clusters and sensitive namespaces.

Change History

3 change records found show changes

Date	Action	Recorded By
Jun 17, 2026	CVE Modified	[email protected]
Jun 17, 2026	CVE Modified	CISA-ADP
May 11, 2026	New CVE Received	[email protected]