Improper Authorization Affecting external-secrets-operator-2.3 package, versions <2.3.0-r11


Severity

Recommended
low

Based on default assessment until relevant scores are available.

Threat Intelligence

EPSS
0.21% (12th percentile)

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  • Snyk IDSNYK-WOLFILATEST-EXTERNALSECRETSOPERATOR23-17163085
  • published4 Jun 2026
  • disclosed11 May 2026

Introduced: 11 May 2026

CVE-2026-42876  (opens in a new tab)
CWE-285  (opens in a new tab)

How to fix?

Upgrade Wolfi external-secrets-operator-2.3 to version 2.3.0-r11 or higher.

NVD Description

Note: Versions mentioned in the description apply only to the upstream external-secrets-operator-2.3 package and not the external-secrets-operator-2.3 package as distributed by Wolfi. See How to fix? for Wolfi relevant fixed versions and status.

External Secrets Operator reads information from a third-party service and automatically injects the values as Kubernetes Secrets. Prior to 2.4.1, a user who only has permission to create ExternalSecret resources can cause the operator to create a Secret that Kubernetes will automatically populate with a long-lived token for the specified service account. This effectively allows the user to impersonate any service account in the namespace without needing direct create permissions on TokenRequest or Secrets of that type. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.4.1.