CVE-2026-34984

External Secrets Operator has DNS exfiltration via getHostByName in its v2 template engine

Published Apr 14, 2026 CVSS 4.0 · 7.1 High EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
External Secrets Operator reads information from a third-party service and automatically injects the values as Kubernetes Secrets. Versions 2.2.0 and below contain a vulnerability in runtime/template/v2/template.go where the v2 template engine removes env and expandenv from Sprig's TxtFuncMap() but leaves the getHostByName function accessible to user-controlled templates. Since ESO executes templates within the controller process, an attacker who can create or update templated ExternalSecret resources can invoke controller-side DNS lookups using secret-derived values. This creates a DNS exfiltration primitive, allowing fetched secret material to be leaked via DNS queries without requiring direct outbound network access from the attacker's workload. The impact is a confidentiality issue, particularly in environments where untrusted or lower-trust users can author templated ExternalSecret resources and the controller has DNS resolution capability. This issue has been fixed in version 2.3.0.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-r2pg-r6h7-crf3 External Secrets Operator has DNS-based secret exfiltration via getHostByName in External Secrets v2 template engine
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared External-secrets external Secrets Operator
Weaknesses NVD-CWE-noinfo
CPEs cpe:2.3:a:external-secrets:external_secrets_operator:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
Vendors & Products External-secrets external Secrets Operator
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 6.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N'}

cvssV3_1

{'score': 6.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
Weaknesses CWE-94
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

cvssV3_1

{'score': 6.5, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N'}

threat_severity

Moderate

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

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

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared External-secrets
External-secrets external-secrets
Vendors & Products External-secrets
External-secrets external-secrets
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description External Secrets Operator reads information from a third-party service and automatically injects the values as Kubernetes Secrets. Versions 2.2.0 and below contain a vulnerability in runtime/template/v2/template.go where the v2 template engine removes env and expandenv from Sprig's TxtFuncMap() but leaves the getHostByName function accessible to user-controlled templates. Since ESO executes templates within the controller process, an attacker who can create or update templated ExternalSecret resources can invoke controller-side DNS lookups using secret-derived values. This creates a DNS exfiltration primitive, allowing fetched secret material to be leaked via DNS queries without requiring direct outbound network access from the attacker's workload. The impact is a confidentiality issue, particularly in environments where untrusted or lower-trust users can author templated ExternalSecret resources and the controller has DNS resolution capability. This issue has been fixed in version 2.3.0.
Title External Secrets Operator has DNS exfiltration via getHostByName in its v2 template engine
Weaknesses CWE-200
References
Metrics cvssV4_0

{'score': 7.1, 'vector': 'CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N'}

Sources

Status
PUBLISHED
Assigner
GitHub_M
Published
Updated
Apr 14, 2026, 4:27 PM
Reserved
Mar 31, 2026, 7:38 PM
Status
Analyzed
Published
Apr 14, 2026, 3:16 AM
Modified
Jun 17, 2026, 10:39 AM
Severity
Moderate
Public date
Apr 14, 2026, 1:48 AM