CVE-2026-31892
Published: 11 March 2026
Summary
CVE-2026-31892 is a high-severity Incorrect Authorization (CWE-863) vulnerability in Argoproj Argo Workflows. Its CVSS base score is 8.9 (High).
Operationally, exploitation aligns with the MITRE ATT&CK technique Exploitation for Privilege Escalation (T1068); ranked at the 18.9th percentile by exploit likelihood (below the median); it is not currently listed in the CISA KEV catalog; a public proof-of-concept is referenced.
The strongest mitigations our analysis identified are NIST 800-53 AC-3 (Access Enforcement) and SI-10 (Information Input Validation).
Deeper analysis
CVE-2026-31892 is a critical authorization bypass vulnerability (CWE-863: Incorrect Authorization) in Argo Workflows, an open source container-native workflow engine for orchestrating parallel jobs on Kubernetes. It affects versions from 2.9.0 up to but excluding 4.0.2 and 3.7.11. The issue arises because a user submitting a Workflow can include a podSpecPatch field that completely overrides all security settings defined in a referenced WorkflowTemplate. This occurs even when the controller is configured with templateReferencing: Strict, intended to enforce use of admin-approved templates, as the podSpecPatch takes precedence during spec merging and is applied directly to the pod spec at creation time without any security validation.
A low-privileged user (PR:L) who can submit Workflows can exploit this vulnerability remotely (AV:N) with low attack complexity (AC:L) and no user interaction (UI:N), achieving high confidentiality (C:H) and integrity (I:H) impacts but no availability impact (A:N), for an overall CVSS v3.1 score of 8.1 (S:U). Attackers can thereby inject arbitrary pod specifications, evading cluster security controls enforced via templates.
The vulnerability is addressed in Argo Workflows releases 4.0.2 and 3.7.11. Additional details on the issue and mitigation are available in the upstream security advisory at https://github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/security/advisories/GHSA-3wf5-g532-rcrr.
OWASP Top 10 for Web (2025)
EU & UK References
- 🇪🇺 ENISA EUVD: EUVD-2026-11206
Vulnerability details
Argo Workflows is an open source container-native workflow engine for orchestrating parallel jobs on Kubernetes. From 2.9.0 to before 4.0.2 and 3.7.11, A user who can submit Workflows can completely bypass all security settings defined in a WorkflowTemplate by including…
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a podSpecPatch field in their Workflow submission. This works even when the controller is configured with templateReferencing: Strict, which is specifically documented as a mechanism to restrict users to admin-approved templates. The podSpecPatch field on a submitted Workflow takes precedence over the referenced WorkflowTemplate during spec merging and is applied directly to the pod spec at creation time with no security validation. This vulnerability is fixed in 4.0.2 and 3.7.11.
- CWE(s)
Related Threats
MITRE ATT&CK Enterprise TechniquesAI
Why these techniques?
Authorization bypass enables arbitrary podSpec injection (overriding WorkflowTemplate security controls), directly facilitating container deployment (T1610) and privilege escalation via exploitation (T1068).
CVEs Like This One
Affected Assets
Mitigating Controls
Mitigating Controls (NIST 800-53 r5) AI
Requires timely identification, reporting, and correction of the authorization bypass flaw in Argo Workflows, preventing exploitation of podSpecPatch to override WorkflowTemplate security settings.
Enforces approved authorizations to block unauthorized pod specification overrides via podSpecPatch during Workflow submission and spec merging.
Validates Workflow submission inputs including podSpecPatch fields to reject those that bypass admin-approved template security configurations without validation.