Auth bypass in Etcd

CVE-2026-33343

etcd is a distributed key-value store for the data of a distributed system. Prior to versions 3.4.42, 3.5.28, and 3.6.9, an authenticated user with RBAC restricted permissions on key ranges can use nested transactions to bypass all key-level authorization. This allows any authenticated user with direct access to etcd to effectively ignore all key range restrictions, accessing the entire etcd data store. Kubernetes does not rely on etcd’s built-in authentication and authorization. Instead, the API server handles authentication and authorization itself, so typical Kubernetes deployments are not affected. Versions 3.4.42, 3.5.28, and 3.6.9 contain a patch. If upgrading is not immediately possible, reduce exposure by treating the affected RPCs as unauthenticated in practice. Restrict network access to etcd server ports so only trusted components can connect and require strong client identity at the transport layer, such as mTLS with tightly scoped client certificate distribution.

Vulnerability class: Broken Access Control

Published · last modified .

EPSS exploit prediction

EPSS: 0.003 (15.6th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 16th percentile — 15.6% of CVEs in the catalogue have a lower EPSS than this one. How to read EPSS.

EPSS trend (30 days)EPSS over the last 30 days for CVE-2026-33343: held from 0.002 to 0.003.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.002 · newest: 0.003 · change: +0.000

Affected products

  • Etcd
  • Etcd-Io Etcd — versions >= 3.5.0-alpha.0, < 3.5.28, >= 3.6.0-alpha.0, < 3.6.9, < 3.4.42

Weakness classification (CWE)

References