What is CVE-2020-11013?

CVE-2020-11013 is a high-severity vulnerability in Helm, classified under Information Disclosure. CVSS score: 8.5/10. Published 2020-04-24.

How severe is CVE-2020-11013?

High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.5 out of 10.

Information disclosure in Helm

CVE-2020-11013

Their is an information disclosure vulnerability in Helm from version 3.1.0 and before version 3.2.0. `lookup` is a Helm template function introduced in Helm v3. It is able to lookup resources in the cluster to check for the existence of specific resources and get details about them. This can be used as part of the process to render templates. The documented behavior of `helm template` states that it does not attach to a remote cluster. However, a the recently added `lookup` template function circumvents this restriction and connects to the cluster even during `helm template` and `helm install|update|delete|rollback --dry-run`. The user is not notified of this behavior. Running `helm template` should not make calls to a cluster. This is different from `install`, which is presumed to have access to a cluster in order to load resources into Kubernetes. Helm 2 is unaffected by this vulnerability. A malicious chart author could inject a `lookup` into a chart that, when rendered through `helm template`, performs unannounced lookups against the cluster a user's `KUBECONFIG` file points to. This information can then be disclosed via the output of `helm template`. This issue has been fixed in Helm 3.2.0

Vulnerability class: Information Disclosure

Published 2020-04-24 · last modified 2026-06-17.

CVSS v3 metric

CVSS v3 base score 8.5 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:L/A:N.

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.014 (72.3th percentile), scored 2026-10-19.

Low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, but still tracked. 72nd percentile — 72.3% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.013 · newest: 0.014 · change: +0.002

Affected products

Helm — versions >= 3.1.0, < 3.2.0

Weakness classification (CWE)

CWE-200 — Information Disclosure

References

github.com/helm/helm/security/advisories/GHSA-q8q8-93cv-v6h8 (Exploit, Third Party Advisory)
github.com/helm/helm/releases/tag/v3.2.0 (Third Party Advisory, Release Notes)

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2020-11013?: CVE-2020-11013 is a high-severity vulnerability in Helm, classified under Information Disclosure. CVSS score: 8.5/10. Published 2020-04-24.
How severe is CVE-2020-11013?: High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 8.5 out of 10.