Improper input validation in Kyverno
CVE-2025-47281
Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. In versions 1.14.1 and below, a Denial of Service (DoS) vulnerability exists due to improper handling of JMESPath variable substitutions. Attackers with permissions to create or update Kyverno policies can craft expressions using the {{@}} variable combined with a pipe and an invalid JMESPath function (e.g., {{@ | non_existent_function }}). This leads to a nil value being substituted into the policy structure. Subsequent processing by internal functions, specifically getValueAsStringMap, which expect string values, results in a panic due to a type assertion failure (interface {} is nil, not string). This crashes Kyverno worker threads in the admission controller and causes continuous crashes of the reports controller pod. This is fixed in version 1.14.2.
Vulnerability class: Drupalgeddon 2 (CVE-2018-7600)
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 7.7 (High). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.005 (39.5th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 39th percentile — 39.5% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.005 · newest: 0.005 · change: 0.000
Affected products
- Kyverno — versions < 1.14.2
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- github.com/kyverno/kyverno/security/advisories/GHSA-r5p3-955p-5ggq (Exploit, Mitigation, Vendor Advisory)
- github.com/kyverno/kyverno/commit/cbd7d4ca24de1c55396fc3295e9fc3215832be7c (Patch)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2025-47281?
- CVE-2025-47281 is a high-severity vulnerability in Kyverno, classified under Improper Input Validation. CVSS score: 7.7/10. Published 2025-07-23.
- How severe is CVE-2025-47281?
- High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.7 out of 10.