CVE-2023-26484

On a compromised KubeVirt node, the virt-handler service account can be used to modify all node specs

HIGH
8.2
CVSS Score
Published: March 15, 2023 at 08:40 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 05:43 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorKubevirt

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Severity
HIGH8.2
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.6%
SSVC
No known exploit

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.

Affected

Our own answer: ranges merged, affected separated from platform-only, with confidence and review flags.

Remediation

No guide yet

No remediation guidance has been written for this CVE yet. What the record does show:

References (2)

x_refsource_MISCIssue TrackingThird Party Advisory
https://github.com/kubevirt/kubevirt/issues/9109

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCNo known exploitNot automatableTotal impact

SSVC signals action urgency (what to patch first), separate from CVSS which measures severity.

CVSS

8.2HIGHGitHub_M
Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
HIGH
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
CHANGED
Confidentiality
HIGH
Integrity
HIGH
Availability
NONE
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusMODIFIED
CWE
CWE-863

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