CVE-2023-5528
Published: 14 November 2023
Summary
CVE-2023-5528 is a high-severity Improper Input Validation (CWE-20) vulnerability in Kubernetes Kubernetes. Its CVSS base score is 7.2 (High).
Operationally, ranked in the top 4.4% of CVEs by exploit likelihood; it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog.
Deeper analysis
A security issue was discovered in Kubernetes where a user that can create pods and persistent volumes on Windows nodes may be able to escalate to admin privileges on those nodes. Kubernetes clusters are only affected if they are using an in-tree storage plugin for Windows nodes. The flaw is tracked as CVE-2023-5528 with a CVSS 3.1 score of 7.2 and is associated with CWE-20.
An attacker with permissions to create pods and persistent volumes on Windows nodes can exploit the issue to obtain administrative privileges on those nodes. Exploitation requires network access and high privileges but no user interaction, and the impact covers confidentiality, integrity, and availability.
References to the Kubernetes issue tracker and security-announce mailing list, along with a Fedora package announcement, indicate that official advisories address the condition under which clusters are affected.
The associated EPSS score has remained flat at a peak of 0.1985 with no material rise after disclosure.
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2023-2977
Vulnerability details
A security issue was discovered in Kubernetes where a user that can create pods and persistent volumes on Windows nodes may be able to escalate to admin privileges on those nodes. Kubernetes clusters are only affected if they are using…
more
an in-tree storage plugin for Windows nodes.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
No named actor attribution yet. ATT&CK technique mapping in progress for this CVE.
Affected Assets
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.
Security testing and developer training directly verify and enforce proper input validation, reducing exploitability of injection and malformed-data weaknesses.
Security testing and evaluation at multiple SDLC stages directly detects missing or flawed input validation, with the required remediation process ensuring fixes are applied.
Directly implements checks on information inputs to reject invalid data before processing.
Spam protection mechanisms perform filtering and detection on inbound/outbound messages, directly compensating for missing or weak input validation of unsolicited content.