Security Resilience

CVE-2023-26484

Access Control in Kubevirt ≤ 0.59.0

Published
15 March 2023
Modified
21 November 2024
Patch / advisory
CVSS Score v3.1 8.2
Click a component to see what it means
Raw vectorCVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
EPSS Score 0.0061 48th percentile
Risk Priority 58 floored blend · peak EPSS

CVSS and EPSS are reproduced from their sources (NVD, FIRST EPSS). Risk Priority is our own derived reading, not an NVD score.

Summary

CVE-2023-26484 is a high-severity Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) vulnerability in Kubevirt Kubevirt. Its CVSS base score is 8.2 (High).

Operationally, ranked at the 48th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.

OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)

EU & UK References

Vulnerability Data

KubeVirt is a virtual machine management add-on for Kubernetes. In versions 0.59.0 and prior, if a malicious user has taken over a Kubernetes node where virt-handler (the KubeVirt node-daemon) is running, the virt-handler service account can be used to modify…

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all node specs. This can be misused to lure-in system-level-privileged components which can, for instance, read all secrets on the cluster, or can exec into pods on other nodes. This way, a compromised node can be used to elevate privileges beyond the node until potentially having full privileged access to the whole cluster. The simplest way to exploit this, once a user could compromise a specific node, is to set with the virt-handler service account all other nodes to unschedulable and simply wait until system-critical components with high privileges appear on its node. No patches are available as of time of publication. As a workaround, gatekeeper users can add a webhook which will block the `virt-handler` service account to modify the spec of a node.

CWE(s)

Related Threats

CVEs Like This One

CVE-2025-64433Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2025-64436Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2025-64432Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2025-64434Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2025-64324Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2024-33394Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2025-64435Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2025-64437Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2026-13318Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt
CVE-2026-13218Same product: Kubevirt Kubevirt

Affected Assets

kubevirt
kubevirt
≤ 0.59.0

Mitigating Controls

Likely Mitigating Controls AI

Per-CVE control mapping for this CVE has not run yet; the list below is derived from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry.

addresses: CWE-863

Periodic review and update of procedures reduces incorrect authorization implementations over time.

addresses: CWE-863

Supervision identifies cases where authorization logic incorrectly permits unauthorized actions.

addresses: CWE-863

Defining permitted attribute values and auditing modifications reduces the chance of incorrect authorization outcomes due to tampered or missing labels.

addresses: CWE-863

The authorization process and usage restrictions help prevent incorrect authorization for remote access types.

addresses: CWE-863

Establishing configuration and connection requirements helps ensure correct rather than incorrect authorization for wireless access.

addresses: CWE-863

Establishing connection authorization processes for mobile devices helps ensure authorization decisions are correctly implemented rather than incorrect.

addresses: CWE-863

Monitoring account use, notifying on changes, and reviewing accounts for compliance corrects incorrect authorization assignments.

addresses: CWE-863

Ensures authorization decisions for external system use are correctly implemented and enforced.

Mitigating Controls (ISO/IEC 27001:2022 Annex A) AI

Derived directly from the weakness types (CWEs) cited in the NVD entry via our AI-authored CWE→ISO cross-walk (authority under review) — links open the control.

blocks

Requiring consistency between access rights and classification plus formal approval steps ensures that the authorization logic correctly distinguishes between entities that should and should not be granted access.

blocks

A.5.18's provisioning, revocation, review and adjustment of access rights (incl. before role changes/termination, with segregation and owner approval) directly stops incorrect authorization decisions from being exploitable in the vast majority of cases; the bounded remainder is incorrectness inside the authorization logic itself (e.g. flawed conditional or missing check) rather than rights that were wrongly granted.

blocks

A.8.3 directly mandates restricting access to information per policies via configuration, identity/group controls, isolation, and dynamic techniques that enforce correct authorization decisions, addressing most but not all slices of CWE-863 (e.g., remainder in non-access-decision authorization errors like timing or environmental factors).

Hardening callouts derived

DISA STIG baselines are authored against specific weaknesses. Where this CVE cites a broad weakness class, the mapping is not asserted at that abstraction (owner ruling, 2026-09-25: grade only at Base and below), so no rule is shown here rather than a rule shown against the wrong grain.

  • No fine-grained STIG row for CWE-863, a class-level weakness, and none of its children carries one either.

References