Vulnerability in Kyverno

CVE-2026-41485

Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. Prior to versions 1.17.2 and 1.16.4, an unchecked type assertion in the `forEach` mutation handler allows any user with permission to create a `Policy` or `ClusterPolicy` to crash the cluster-wide background controller into a persistent CrashLoopBackOff. The same bug also causes the admission controller to drop connections and block all matching resource operations. The crash loop persists until the policy is deleted. The vulnerability is confined to the legacy engine, and CEL-based policies are unaffected. Versions 1.17.2 and 1.16.4 fix the issue.

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: 0.006 (45.1th percentile), scored .

Very low probability of exploitation in the next 30 days; routine patching cadence is appropriate. 45th percentile — 45.1% 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-2026-41485: held from 0.004 to 0.006.

EPSS over last 30 days · oldest: 0.004 · newest: 0.006 · change: +0.002

Affected products

  • Kyverno — versions < 1.16.4, >= 1.17.0-rc1, < 1.17.2

Weakness classification (CWE)

References

Frequently asked questions

What is CVE-2026-41485?
CVE-2026-41485 is a high-severity vulnerability in Kyverno, classified under Reachable Assertion. CVSS score: 7.7/10. Published 2026-04-24.
How severe is CVE-2026-41485?
High severity. CVSS v3 base score is 7.7 out of 10.