CVE-2026-77524
CriticalCVSS 9.9Summary
KEDA is a Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaling component. In version 2.20.2 and earlier, a namespace administrator who can create TriggerAuthentication and ScaledObject resources can set hashiCorpVault.address to a tenant-controlled endpoint and select Kubernetes authentication without an explicit credential. KEDA then uses the operator pod's projected ServiceAccount token and sends it to that endpoint as a Vault login credential; the JWT-shape filter from the prior CVE-2025-68476 remediation accepts the operator token because its subject is a Kubernetes ServiceAccount, allowing the attacker to obtain the operator's cluster-wide permissions, including broad Secret reads and workload or admission-related operations.
Risk Assessment
The vulnerability may allow a namespace administrator to escalate privileges to the KEDA operator level across the cluster, including reading Secrets and performing workload operations. This poses a serious risk to the confidentiality and integrity of the Kubernetes cluster.
Recommendation
Update KEDA to version 2.21.0 or later. Restrict permissions to create TriggerAuthentication and ScaledObject resources and review the KEDA operator's permissions and access to Secrets.
Other vulnerabilities in KEDA
See all- CVE-2026-53572Medium
KEDA prior to 2.20.0 has a vulnerability in constructing libpq-style connection strings from tenant-controlled values (host, port, userName, dbName, sslmode, password). escapePostgreConnectionParameter() only quotes values containing a literal space, so tabs, newlines, carriage returns, form feeds, vertical tabs, quotes, and backslashes can create additional key-value tokens when pgx parses the string. An attacker able to create or modify a TriggerAuthentication or ScaledObject can inject host or sslmode parameters, redirect the database connection to an attacker-controlled server, expose credentials, or disable intended TLS protection.
- CVE-2025-68476High
KEDA is a Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaling component. Prior to versions 2.17.3 and 2.18.3, an Arbitrary File Read vulnerability was identified in KEDA, potentially affecting any KEDA resource that uses TriggerAuthentication to configure HashiCorp Vault authentication. It stems from incorrect or insufficient path validation when loading the Service Account Token specified in spec.hashiCorpVault.credential.serviceAccount.
Original NVD description (English source)
KEDA is a Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaling component. In version 2.20.2 and earlier, a namespace administrator who can create TriggerAuthentication and ScaledObject resources can set hashiCorpVault.address to a tenant-controlled endpoint and select Kubernetes authentication without an explicit credential. KEDA then uses the operator pod's projected ServiceAccount token and sends it to that endpoint as a Vault login credential. The JWT-shape filter from the prior CVE-2025-68476 remediation accepts the operator token because its subject is a Kubernetes ServiceAccount, so the attacker can obtain the operator's cluster-wide permissions, including broad Secret reads and workload or admission-related operations. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.21.0.
Vulnerability data from NVD (NIST) · CISA KEV · EPSS