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CVE-2026-42876

MEDIUMCVSS 4.9/10EPSS 0.21%

Last modified

CVE-2026-42876 is a medium-severity vulnerability rated 4.9/10 on the CVSS scale. 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. EPSS estimates a 0.21% chance of exploitation in the next 30 days.

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 3.1
4.9/10

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

EPSS Probability
0.21%

11.8th percentile

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days. Learn more

Weakness Enumeration

References

Timeline

Published
Last Modified
Status
Deferred

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-42876?
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.
How severe is CVE-2026-42876?
CVE-2026-42876 has a CVSS score of 4.9/10 (MEDIUM severity). The EPSS model estimates a 0.21% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days.
How do I fix CVE-2026-42876?
Check the vendor references and advisories linked above for patched versions and mitigation guidance. You can also run a Strix scan to test if your systems are affected.

Are you affected by CVE-2026-42876?

Run a free Strix scan to check your systems for this vulnerability.

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Source: NVD / NIST