CVE-2026-54523
Fixed in a distro release EPSS <1%CVSS 9.6
Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. From 1.18.0 until 1.18.2, the NamespacedMutatingPolicy CEL compiler exposes the generator library to matchConditions, allowing a namespace-scoped policy to invoke generator.apply(namespace, resources) with an arbitrary target namespace. The validation in pkg/cel/policies/mpol/validate.go checks that the policy compiles but does not enforce namespace scope, and GenerateResources in pkg/cel/libs/context.go does not reject the cross-namespace target. A user who can create NamespacedMutatingPolicy objects in one namespace can cause the admission controller, operating with cluster-wide privileges, to create ConfigMaps, NetworkPolicies, Secrets, RoleBindings, and other resources in another namespace, enabling unauthorized modification and potential privilege escalation. This issue is fixed in version 1.18.2.
Products: kyverno
Fixed upstream
| Ecosystem | Package | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| Go | github.com/kyverno/kyverno | 1.18.2 |
Distro releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| Chainguard | kyverno-init-container-1.18 | 1.18.2-r15 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server 16.0 | govulncheck-vulndb | 0.0.20260827T195228-160000.1.1 |
| SUSE:Linux Enterprise Server for SAP applications 16.0 | govulncheck-vulndb | 0.0.20260827T195228-160000.1.1 |
| Wolfi | kyverno-init-container-1.18 | 1.18.2-r15 |
| openSUSE:Leap 16.0 | govulncheck-vulndb | 0.0.20260827T195228-160000.1.1 |