CVE-2026-18608
Description
A flaw was found in the Data Science Pipelines Operator (DSPO). The operator's ClusterRole, which defines its permissions, includes extensive privileges beyond what is necessary for its operation. These excessive permissions, such as the ability to execute commands within pods and manage cluster-wide roles, could be exploited. If the DSPO pod were compromised, an attacker could leverage these privileges to gain full administrative control over the entire Kubernetes cluster.
Statement
This Important vulnerability in the Data Science Pipelines Operator (DSPO) for Red Hat OpenShift AI grants the operator's ServiceAccount excessive cluster-wide permissions. These overprivileged permissions, including pods/exec and clusterrolebindings CRUD, mean that a compromise of the DSPO pod could escalate to full cluster-admin privileges. This significantly amplifies the blast radius of any initial compromise within the OpenShift AI environment.
Mitigation
To reduce the attack surface, administrators should review and modify the `ClusterRole` associated with the Data Science Pipelines Operator (DSPO) to remove unnecessary permissions. Specifically, restrict or remove permissions for `pods/exec`, `kubeflow.org */*`, `seldondeployments *`, and broad `apiGroups:'*'` for deployments and services. The operator's `ClusterRole` should be limited to only the required resources such as `apps/deployments`, `services`, `secrets`, `configmaps`, `roles/rolebindings`, `routes`, `networkpolicies`, `servicemonitors`, and DSPA/Argo CRDs. Applying these changes may require restarting the DSPO pod for the updated permissions to take effect and could impact operator functionality if not carefully validated.
Common Vulnerability Scoring System (CVSS) Score Details
Info alert:Important note
CVSS scores for open source components depend on vendor-specific factors (e.g. version or build chain). Therefore, Red Hat's score and impact rating can be different from NVD and other vendors. Red Hat remains the authoritative CVE Naming Authority (CNA) source for its products and services (see Red Hat classifications).
CVSS v3 Score Breakdown
| Red Hat | NVD | cve.org | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Base Score | 8.7 | N/A | 8.7 |
| Attack Vector | Network | N/A | Network |
| Attack Complexity | Low | N/A | Low |
| Privileges Required | High | N/A | High |
| User Interaction | None | N/A | None |
| Scope | Changed | N/A | Changed |
| Confidentiality | High | N/A | High |
| Integrity Impact | High | N/A | High |
| Availability Impact | None | N/A | None |
Vector
Red Hat: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
cve.org: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:N
Understanding the Weakness (CWE)
Confidentiality,Integrity,Availability,Access Control
Technical Impact: Gain Privileges or Assume Identity; Execute Unauthorized Code or Commands; Read Application Data; DoS: Crash, Exit, or Restart
An attacker will be able to gain access to any resources that are allowed by the extra privileges. Common results include executing code, disabling services, and reading restricted data. New weaknesses can be exposed because running with extra privileges, such as root or Administrator, can disable the normal security checks being performed by the operating system or surrounding environment. Other pre-existing weaknesses can turn into security vulnerabilities if they occur while operating at raised privileges.
Frequently Asked Questions
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