KubeVirt Affected by an Authentication Bypass in Kubernetes Aggregation Layer

Summary

KubeVirt is a virtual machine management add-on for Kubernetes. Versions 1.5.3 and below, and 1.6.0 contained a flawed implementation of the Kubernetes aggregation layer's authentication flow which could enable bypass of RBAC controls. It was discovered that the virt-api component fails to correctly authenticate the client when receiving API requests over mTLS. In particular, it fails to validate the CN (Common Name) field in the received client TLS certificates against the set of allowed values defined in the extension-apiserver-authentication configmap. Failre to validate certain fields in the client TLS certificate may allow an attacker to bypass existing RBAC controls by directly communicating with the aggregated API server, impersonating the Kubernetes API server and its aggregator component. This issue is fixed in versions 1.5.3 and 1.6.1.

Timeline

1. Nov 7, 2025, 6:38 PM UTCCVE published
2. Nov 7, 2025, 6:54 PM UTCCISA SSVC assessment

   Exploitation: poc · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial

3. Nov 7, 2025, 6:54 PM UTCRecord last updated

Affected versions

• kubevirt kubevirt

  fixed in 1.5.3; From 1.6.0 · fixed in 1.6.1

• kubevirt.io/kubevirtGo

  fixed in 1.5.3

• kubevirt.io/kubevirtGo

  From 1.6.0-alpha.0 · fixed in 1.6.1

• kubevirt.io/kubevirtGo

  From 1.7.0-alpha.0 · fixed in 1.7.0-rc.0

• kubevirt.io/kubevirtGo

  fixed in 1.5.3; From 1.6.0-alpha.0 · fixed in 1.6.0-beta.0.0.20250730135146-231dc69723f3; From 1.6.0-rc.0 · fixed in 1.6.1; From 1.6.2 · fixed in 1.7.0-rc.0

References 4