CVE-2026-10090

Multicluster-operators-subscription: multicluster-operators-subscription: namespace edit user can deploy cluster-scoped clusterrolebinding and become cluster-admin via application subscription

Published Aug 5, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 9 Critical EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
A flaw was found in the Application Subscription controller (multicluster-operators-subscription) of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes (ACM). A user with namespace-scoped "edit" privileges in an ACM hub namespace can create a Channel resource pointing to a Helm repository they control and a Subscription resource referencing it. The app-subscription controller fetches and applies the Helm chart contents with its own elevated authority, without verifying whether the subscription creator holds the "open-cluster-management:subscription-admin" role and without restricting applied resources to the subscription namespace. This allows the attacker to include cluster-scoped resources in the Helm chart, such as a ClusterRoleBinding granting the attacker's ServiceAccount the "cluster-admin" ClusterRole. Successful exploitation results in full cluster-admin privilege escalation. This contradicts the ACM documentation which states that non-subscription-admin users should have resources deployed into the subscription namespace only.

Remediation

Vendor Workaround

Remove the RBAC aggregation (immediate, targeted) Delete the ClusterRole that aggregates Application Subscription management permissions into the Kubernetes edit role: oc delete clusterrole open-cluster-management:multicloud-operators-subscription:rbac-aggregate-edit Verification: oc auth can-i create subscriptions.apps.open-cluster-management.io --as=<user> -n <namespace> Expected result after mitigation: no Important notes: This ClusterRole is recreated by the multiclusterhub-operator during reconciliation. Customers must re-apply this mitigation after any ACM operator upgrade, operator pod restart, or MultiClusterHub CR modification until a fixed release is installed. After deletion, users with only the edit or view roles will no longer be able to create or delete Application Subscription, Channel, or related resources. Users who are bound to open-cluster-management:subscription-admin or who have explicit RBAC grants are unaffected. Existing Application Subscriptions continue to function normally.

Tracking

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Advisories

No advisories available
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:acm:2 cpe:/a:redhat:acm:2.13::el9
cpe:/a:redhat:acm:2.15::el9
cpe:/a:redhat:acm:2.17::el9
References
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 9.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

cvssV3_1

{'score': 9, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:L'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 9.9, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

cvssV3_1

{'score': 9.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Redhat advanced Cluster Management For Kubernetes
Vendors & Products Redhat advanced Cluster Management For Kubernetes
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A flaw was found in the Application Subscription controller (multicluster-operators-subscription) of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes (ACM). A user with namespace-scoped "edit" privileges in an ACM hub namespace can create a Channel resource pointing to a Helm repository they control and a Subscription resource referencing it. The app-subscription controller fetches and applies the Helm chart contents with its own elevated authority, without verifying whether the subscription creator holds the "open-cluster-management:subscription-admin" role and without restricting applied resources to the subscription namespace. This allows the attacker to include cluster-scoped resources in the Helm chart, such as a ClusterRoleBinding granting the attacker's ServiceAccount the "cluster-admin" ClusterRole. Successful exploitation results in full cluster-admin privilege escalation. This contradicts the ACM documentation which states that non-subscription-admin users should have resources deployed into the subscription namespace only.
Title Multicluster-operators-subscription: multicluster-operators-subscription: namespace edit user can deploy cluster-scoped clusterrolebinding and become cluster-admin via application subscription
First Time appeared Redhat
Redhat acm
Weaknesses CWE-267
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:acm:2
Vendors & Products Redhat
Redhat acm
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 9.9, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H'}

Weaknesses

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
redhat
Published
Updated
Sep 8, 2026, 1:09 PM
Reserved
May 29, 2026, 1:35 PM
Status
Awaiting Analysis
Published
Aug 5, 2026, 9:18 AM
Modified
Oct 23, 2026, 9:10 PM
Severity
Important
Public date
Aug 5, 2026, 8:35 AM