dbcve.org
RancherApplication · Suse

CVE-2023-22651

CRITICAL · 9.9 CVSS v3.1 Published 2023-05-04
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to after 2.7.2 or later.
See remediation →
100/100
Remediation priority · Urgent
Remotely reachable Zero-click

Official description Straight from the sourceThe vendor's or NVD's own wording, published unedited. Authoritative, but often terse — it says what broke, rarely what to do.

NVD · unedited
Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in SUSE Rancher allows Privilege Escalation. A failure in the update logic of Rancher's admission Webhook may lead to the misconfiguration of the Webhook. This component enforces validation rules and security checks before resources are admitted into the Kubernetes cluster. The issue only affects users that upgrade from 2.6.x or 2.7.x to 2.7.2. Users that did a fresh install of 2.7.2 (and did not follow an upgrade path) are not affected.

Technical summary Written by usOur analysis, written from the advisory, the CVSS vector and the affected-version data. It adds context the advisory leaves out, and never invents facts that are not in the source.

dbcve analysis · moderate confidence

Improper privilege management in SUSE Rancher's admission Webhook update logic allows privilege escalation. The webhook component, which validates and enforces security checks on resources before admission to the Kubernetes cluster, can become misconfigured during upgrades from 2.6.x or 2.7.x to version 2.7.2, potentially bypassing security controls.

MitigationUsers who upgraded to 2.7.2 from 2.6.x or 2.7.x should audit their admission Webhook configurations and verify security controls are properly enforced; fresh installations of 2.7.2 are not affected.

Verify against the referenced sources before acting — the references below are authoritative for this CVE, this summary is not.

Affected products & versions What the vendor confirmedThe version ranges the vendor confirmed as vulnerable. If your version sits inside a range here, treat yourself as exposed until you have upgraded.

NVD · CPE data
RancherApplication
Affected:>= 2.6.0, <= 2.7.2

CVSS breakdown How the score is builtThe industry scoring standard. It rates how the flaw is reached, what it takes to exploit, and what an attacker gains — the score is derived from those, not the other way round.

From the vector
Attack vector
Network
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Changed
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Am I affected? How to checkSteps we derive from the advisory and the affected-version data, so you can decide whether this CVE reaches your setup. They are a guide, not a scan — your own configuration is the authority.

dbcve checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Check Rancher version
    Run 'kubectl get rancher' or check the Rancher UI dashboard for the installed version. Alternatively, query the rancher-operator-version custom resource.
    Affected if Version is 2.7.2 and the installation was performed via an upgrade from 2.6.x or 2.7.x (fresh installations of 2.7.2 are not affected)
  2. Determine installation method
    Review deployment history, Helm release notes, or backup logs to confirm whether this was an upgrade from 2.6.x or 2.7.x to 2.7.2 versus a fresh installation.
    Affected if The system was upgraded from 2.6.x or 2.7.x to 2.7.2; fresh installs are not vulnerable
  3. Inspect admission webhook configurations
    Run 'kubectl get validatingwebhookconfigurations -A' to list all validating webhook configurations. Check for the Rancher-specific admission webhooks (such as rancher.cattle.io) and verify their configuration matches expected settings.
    Affected if Admission webhooks are missing, disabled, or have permissive rules that bypass security controls
  4. Verify webhook rules and failure policy
    Describe each admission webhook with 'kubectl describe validatingwebhookconfiguration <name>' and review the 'rules' and 'failurePolicy' fields. Ensure failurePolicy is set to 'Fail' (not 'Ignore') and rules cover expected resource types.
    Affected if failurePolicy is set to 'Ignore' or webhook rules are missing for critical resource types, indicating security controls may be bypassed

A user is affected if they upgraded to Rancher 2.7.2 from 2.6.x or 2.7.x and their admission webhook configurations are missing, misconfigured, or allow bypass of security controls.

Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.

Check your environment

Paste your version and any relevant configuration and it will be compared against the affected criteria above. Do not include secrets or credentials.

AI-assisted, checked against the advisory. Informational, not a guarantee.

Remediation Closing itWhat it takes to close this. Where a vendor fix exists we point at it; where none exists we say so plainly, and can build one. Effort estimates are scoped from the advisory, not from your codebase.

dbcve · scoped
Upgrade available Upgrade to a release after 2.7.2
Interim mitigation

Users who upgraded to 2.7.2 from 2.6.x or 2.7.x should audit their admission Webhook configurations and verify security controls are properly enforced; fresh installations of 2.7.2 are not affected.

Recommended fix High confidence

Rancher 2.7.3 or later (2.7.x stable releases)

  1. Upgrade Rancher to version 2.7.3 or later to resolve the admission Webhook misconfiguration issue
  2. For users currently on 2.6.x, upgrade directly to 2.7.3 or a later 2.7.x release
  3. For users currently on 2.7.0 or 2.7.1, upgrade to 2.7.3 or later
  4. After upgrade, verify the admission Webhook configuration is correct by checking the Webhook settings in the Rancher UI or via kubectl
  5. Users who performed a fresh install of 2.7.2 (not an upgrade) are not affected and do not need to upgrade unless moving to a newer version
Caveat Standard Rancher patch upgrade - review release notes for any known issues; ensure backups exist before upgrading

Generated from the published advisory — verify against the referenced sources before acting.

Fix this in Rancher Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation3.0 h
  • Implementation6.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
15.0 hours of engineering $2,640
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References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.

Primary sources

Practitioner notes

Contributed

Peer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2023-22651 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

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What this is

A place for practitioners to share what actually worked: a mitigation you’ve tested, a configuration change, a version- or environment-specific caveat, or a link to a verified patch. The most useful notes rise to the top as peers upvote them, so the signal stays high.

What belongs here
  • Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
  • No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
  • No spam, self-promotion, credentials, or personal data