CVE-2026-77524

KEDA: Privilege escalation from namespace admin to cluster admin via KEDA TriggerAuthentication

Published Oct 14, 2026 CVSS 3.1 · 9.9 Critical EPSS < 1% KEV · Not listed
Description
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.

Remediation

No solution or workaround provided in the CVE record

Tracking

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Advisories

Source ID Title
Github GHSA Github GHSA GHSA-637c-6jxx-4rwm KEDA: Privilege escalation from namespace admin to cluster admin via KEDA TriggerAuthentication
History
Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'poc', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Kedacore
Kedacore keda
Vendors & Products Kedacore
Kedacore keda
Type Values Removed Values Added
Description 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.
Title KEDA: Privilege escalation from namespace admin to cluster admin via KEDA TriggerAuthentication
Weaknesses CWE-269
CWE-918
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
GitHub_M
Published
Updated
Oct 20, 2026, 1:39 AM
Reserved
Aug 20, 2026, 8:23 PM
Status
Awaiting Analysis
Published
Oct 14, 2026, 5:19 PM
Modified
Oct 20, 2026, 2:17 AM
Severity
Important
Public date
Oct 14, 2026, 4:15 PM