A flaw was found in OpenShift GitOps. Namespace admins can create ArgoCD Custom Resources (CRs) that trick the system into granting them elevated permissions in other namespaces, including privileged namespaces. An authenticated attacker can then use these elevated permissions to create privileged workloads that run on master nodes, effectively giving them root access to the entire cluster.
Weakness
A product incorrectly assigns a privilege to a particular actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor.
Affected Software
| Name | Vendor | Start Version | End Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.16 | RedHat | openshift-gitops-1/gitops-rhel8-operator:sha256:d6102d2d2c0f46d8ceb81d7d85dba857283a6bca3828a99ccaef9feec7c1478a | * |
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.17 | RedHat | openshift-gitops-1/gitops-rhel8-operator:sha256:bc60496d801c19d81020a2f614be34987a603d2ff3d149e58ab4680f6d5e93dd | * |
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.18 | RedHat | openshift-gitops-1/gitops-rhel8-operator:sha256:7f6e588459ff59366a9f8f8f32a784806af11931f8584e46e1d53472a2e010a9 | * |
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.18 | RedHat | openshift-gitops-1/gitops-rhel8-operator:sha256:43ba408b8ed58259bf338fd29260d936fbde9846f772d0580b3e7486ef8ea300 | * |
Potential Mitigations
References
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:23203
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:23206
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2025:23207
- https://access.redhat.com/errata/RHSA-2026:1017
- https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2025-13888
- https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2418361
- https://github.com/redhat-developer/gitops-operator/commit/bc6ac3e03d7c8b3db5d8f1770c868396a4c2dcef
- https://github.com/redhat-developer/gitops-operator/pull/897
- https://github.com/redhat-developer/gitops-operator/releases/tag/v1.16.2