Privilege escalation in Kyverno
CVE-2026-122302
Kyverno before 1.19.2 contains a privilege escalation vulnerability that allows namespace admins to create resources beyond their RBAC because generate-rule admission checks verify the controller's permissions, not the author's. Attackers can create a namespaced Policy with generate rules targeting other namespaces or cluster-scoped kinds, making the background controller create or clone resources cluster-wide.
Vulnerability class: Privilege Escalation
Published · last modified .
CVSS v3 metric
CVSS v3 base score 9.8 (Critical). Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H.
EPSS exploit prediction
EPSS: 0.003 (21.1th percentile), scored .
Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 21st percentile — 21.1% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.
The 30-day trend appears once there are two daily scores.
Affected products
Weakness classification (CWE)
References
- github.com/kyverno/kyverno/security/advisories/GHSA-q62c-r9v2-cf64 (vendor-advisory)
- www.vulncheck.com/advisories/kyverno-before-1.19.2-privilege-escalation-via-gen… (third-party-advisory)
Frequently asked questions
- What is CVE-2026-122302?
- CVE-2026-122302 is a critical-severity vulnerability in Kyverno, classified under Improper Privilege Management. CVSS score: 9.8/10. Published 2026-11-05.
- How severe is CVE-2026-122302?
- Critical severity. CVSS v3 base score is 9.8 out of 10.