CVE-2026-23881

Kyverno Denial of Service via Context Variable Amplification in Policy Engine

MEDIUM
6.5
CVSS Score
Published: January 27, 2026 at 04:10 PM UTC
Updated: June 17, 2026 at 10:22 AM UTC
1 product affected across 1 vendorKyverno

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Severity
MEDIUM6.5
Exploit prediction
EPSS 0.6%
SSVC
PoC

Description

Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. Versions prior to 1.16.3 and 1.15.3 have unbounded memory consumption in Kyverno's policy engine that allows users with policy creation privileges to cause denial of service by crafting policies that exponentially amplify string data through context variables. Versions 1.16.3 and 1.15.3 contain a patch for the vulnerability.

Affected

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

v < 1.15.3v < 1.16.31.16.0 ≤ v < 1.16.3
Affected range stops below 1.15.3, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement
Affected range stops below 1.16.3, so it looks safe — our inference, not a vendor statement

SSVC — Action Prioritization

SSVCPoCNot automatablePartial impact

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

CVSS

Attack Vector
NETWORK
Complexity
LOW
Privileges
LOW
User Interaction
NONE
Scope
UNCHANGED
Confidentiality
NONE
Integrity
NONE
Availability
HIGH
Vector?

Quick Info

StatusANALYZED
CWE
CWE-770

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