Privilege escalation in Kubelet

1) Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

EUVDB-ID: #VU77775

Risk: Low

CVSSv4.0: 1 [CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:H/UI:N/VC:L/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N/E:U/U:Clear]

CVE-ID: CVE-2023-2431

CWE-ID: CWE-264 - Permissions, Privileges, and Access Controls

Exploit availability: No

Description

The vulnerability allows a local user to escalate privileges on the system.

The vulnerability exists in Kubelet that allows pods to bypass the seccomp profile enforcement. Pods that use localhost type for seccomp profile but specify an empty profile field, are affected by this issue. In this scenario, this vulnerability allows the pod to run in unconfined (seccomp disabled) mode

Mitigation

Install updates from vendor's website.

Vulnerable software versions

Kubelet: 1.24.0 - 1.27.1

CPE2.3

• cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubelet:1.24.0:*:*:*:*:kubernetes:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubelet:1.24.1:*:*:*:*:kubernetes:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubelet:1.24.2:*:*:*:*:kubernetes:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubelet:1.24.3:*:*:*:*:kubernetes:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubelet:1.24.4:*:*:*:*:kubernetes:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubelet:1.24.5:*:*:*:*:kubernetes:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubelet:1.24.6:*:*:*:*:kubernetes:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubelet:1.24.7:*:*:*:*:kubernetes:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubelet:1.24.8:*:*:*:*:kubernetes:*:*
• cpe:2.3:a:kubernetes:kubelet:1.24.9:*:*:*:*:kubernetes:*:*

External links

https://groups.google.com/g/kubernetes-security-announce/c/QHmx0HOQa10
https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/118690
https://lists.fedoraproject.org/archives/list/package-announce@lists.fedoraproject.org/message/XBX4RL4UOC7JHWWYB2AJCKSUM7EG5Y5G/

Q & A

Can this vulnerability be exploited remotely?

No. This vulnerability can be exploited locally. The attacker should have authentication credentials and successfully authenticate on the system.

Is there known malware, which exploits this vulnerability?

No. We are not aware of malware exploiting this vulnerability.