Description
A flaw was found in the governance-policy-addon-controller component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes. A user with permissions to annotate the namespaced ManagedClusterAddOn resource can override the governance-policy container image. This allows an attacker to run a controlled image with cluster-admin privileges on the managed cluster, leading to arbitrary code execution and privilege escalation.
Published: 2026-08-18
Score: 8.8 High
EPSS: < 1% Very Low
KEV: No
Impact: n/a
Action: n/a
AI Analysis

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Remediation

Vendor Workaround

To mitigate this issue, restrict users' ability to annotate ManagedClusterAddOn resources within the hub cluster. Ensure that only trusted administrators have namespace-level annotate permissions on these resources. Regularly review and audit permissions related to ManagedClusterAddOn resources to prevent unauthorized modifications. If a service is restarted or reloaded, these permission changes will persist.

Tracking

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Advisories

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History

Thu, 27 Aug 2026 04:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:acm:2.11::el9
cpe:/a:redhat:acm:2.14::el9
cpe:/a:redhat:acm:2.16::el9
References

Wed, 26 Aug 2026 22:00:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:acm:2 cpe:/a:redhat:acm:2.13::el9
cpe:/a:redhat:acm:2.15::el9
cpe:/a:redhat:acm:2.17::el9
References

Fri, 21 Aug 2026 21:45:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
First Time appeared Redhat advanced Cluster Management For Kubernetes
Vendors & Products Redhat advanced Cluster Management For Kubernetes

Wed, 19 Aug 2026 00:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
References
Metrics threat_severity

None

threat_severity

Important


Tue, 18 Aug 2026 19:30:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Metrics ssvc

{'options': {'Automatable': 'no', 'Exploitation': 'none', 'Technical Impact': 'total'}, 'version': '2.0.3'}


Tue, 18 Aug 2026 15:15:00 +0000

Type Values Removed Values Added
Description A flaw was found in the governance-policy-addon-controller component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes. A user with permissions to annotate the namespaced ManagedClusterAddOn resource can override the governance-policy container image. This allows an attacker to run a controlled image with cluster-admin privileges on the managed cluster, leading to arbitrary code execution and privilege escalation.
Title Governance-policy-addon-controller: governance-policy-addon-controller: arbitrary container image override via managedclusteraddon annotation enables rce on spoke
First Time appeared Redhat
Redhat acm
Weaknesses CWE-20
CPEs cpe:/a:redhat:acm:2
Vendors & Products Redhat
Redhat acm
References
Metrics cvssV3_1

{'score': 8.8, 'vector': 'CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H'}


Subscriptions

Redhat Acm Advanced Cluster Management For Kubernetes
cve-icon MITRE

Status: PUBLISHED

Assigner: redhat

Published:

Updated: 2026-08-27T02:15:52.406Z

Reserved: 2026-07-27T17:51:24.886Z

Link: CVE-2026-66793

cve-icon Vulnrichment

Updated: 2026-08-18T17:59:38.883Z

cve-icon NVD

Status : Awaiting Analysis

Published: 2026-08-18T15:17:00.140

Modified: 2026-08-27T04:16:46.047

Link: CVE-2026-66793

cve-icon Redhat

Severity : Important

Publid Date: 2026-08-18T14:25:00Z

Links: CVE-2026-66793 - Bugzilla

cve-icon OpenCVE Enrichment

Updated: 2026-08-21T21:18:43Z

Weaknesses