Medium severity4.9GHSA Advisory· Published May 11, 2026· Updated May 13, 2026
CVE-2026-42876
CVE-2026-42876
Description
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.
AI Insight
LLM-synthesized narrative grounded in this CVE's description and references.
Affected packages
Versions sourced from the GitHub Security Advisory.
| Package | Affected versions | Patched versions |
|---|---|---|
github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/apisGo | >= 0.1.0, < 2.4.1 | 2.4.1 |
Affected products
6- Range: >= 0.1.0, < 2.4.1
- osv-coords5 versionspkg:apk/chainguard/external-secrets-operator-2.2pkg:apk/chainguard/external-secrets-operator-2.3pkg:apk/wolfi/external-secrets-operator-2.2pkg:apk/wolfi/external-secrets-operator-2.3pkg:golang/github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/apis
< 2.2.0-r13+ 4 more
- (no CPE)range: < 2.2.0-r13
- (no CPE)range: < 2.3.0-r11
- (no CPE)range: < 2.2.0-r13
- (no CPE)range: < 2.3.0-r11
- (no CPE)range: >= 0.1.0, < 2.4.1
Patches
Vulnerability mechanics
References
5- github.com/advisories/GHSA-fq7h-9x26-6j22ghsaADVISORY
- nvd.nist.gov/vuln/detail/CVE-2026-42876ghsaADVISORY
- github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/commit/4ddd240af7fe88725d9857b9a0c198073502e288nvdWEB
- github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/releases/tag/v2.4.1nvdWEB
- github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/security/advisories/GHSA-fq7h-9x26-6j22nvdWEB
News mentions
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