{"id":53104,"date":"2026-05-11T14:39:40","date_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:39:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=53104"},"modified":"2026-05-11T14:39:40","modified_gmt":"2026-05-11T14:39:40","slug":"external-secrets-operator-priviledge-escalation-with-secret-overwriting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=53104","title":{"rendered":"External Secrets Operator: Priviledge escalation with secret overwriting_CVE-2026-42876"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>{&#8220;lastseen&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;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.&#8221;,&#8221;published&#8221;:&#8221;2026-05-11T18:58:44.069Z&#8221;,&#8221;modified&#8221;:&#8221;2026-05-11T18:58:44.069Z&#8221;,&#8221;type&#8221;:&#8221;cve&#8221;,&#8221;title&#8221;:&#8221;External Secrets Operator: Priviledge escalation with secret overwriting&#8221;,&#8221;source&#8221;:&#8221;GitHub_M&#8221;,&#8221;references&#8221;:&#8221;https:\/\/github.com\/external-secrets\/external-secrets\/security\/advisories\/GHSA-fq7h-9&#215;26-6j22\\nhttps:\/\/github.com\/external-secrets\/external-secrets\/commit\/4ddd240af7fe88725d9857b9a0c198073502e288\\nhttps:\/\/github.com\/external-secrets\/external-secrets\/releases\/tag\/v2.4.1&#8243;,&#8221;id&#8221;:&#8221;CVE-2026-42876&#8243;,&#8221;bulletinFamily&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;cwe&#8221;:[&#8220;CWE-285&#8243;],&#8221;cvelist&#8221;:null,&#8221;sourceData&#8221;:&#8221;external-secrets external-secrets \\u003c 2.4.1&#8243;,&#8221;sourceHref&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;cvss&#8221;:{&#8220;score&#8221;:4.9,&#8221;severity&#8221;:&#8221;MEDIUM&#8221;,&#8221;vector&#8221;:&#8221;CVSS:3.1\/AV:N\/AC:H\/PR:L\/UI:N\/S:C\/C:L\/I:L\/A:N&#8221;,&#8221;version&#8221;:&#8221;3.1&#8243;},&#8221;cvss2&#8243;:{},&#8221;cvss3&#8243;:{&#8220;version&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;vectorString&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;baseScore&#8221;:0,&#8221;baseSeverity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;attackVector&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;attackComplexity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;privilegesRequired&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;userInteraction&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;scope&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;confidentialityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;integrityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;availabilityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;cvssV3&#8243;:{&#8220;version&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;vectorString&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;baseScore&#8221;:0,&#8221;baseSeverity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;attackVector&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;attackComplexity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;privilegesRequired&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;userInteraction&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;scope&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;confidentialityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;integrityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;availabilityImpact&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;}},&#8221;href&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;category_name&#8221;:&#8221;CVE&#8221;,&#8221;post_link&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;product&#8221;:&#8221;external-secrets&#8221;,&#8221;version&#8221;:&#8221;\\u003c 2.4.1&#8243;,&#8221;vendor&#8221;:&#8221;external-secrets&#8221;,&#8221;ai_description&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_severity&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_vendor&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_product&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_version&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;ai_score&#8221;:0}<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>{&#8220;lastseen&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;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&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[6,8,65,12,21,13,7,11,5],"class_list":["post-53104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-category_cve","tag-cve","tag-cvss","tag-cvss-49","tag-exploit","tag-medium","tag-news","tag-security","tag-tapic","tag-vulnerability"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.5 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>External Secrets Operator: Priviledge escalation with secret overwriting_CVE-2026-42876 - zero redgem<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/zero.redgem.net\/?p=53104\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"External Secrets Operator: Priviledge escalation with secret overwriting_CVE-2026-42876 - zero redgem\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"{&#8220;lastseen&#8221;:&#8221;&#8221;,&#8221;description&#8221;:&#8221;External Secrets Operator reads information from a third-party service and automatically injects the values as Kubernetes Secrets. 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