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Openshift Container PlatformApplication · Redhat

CVE-2023-6476

HIGH · 7.5 CVSS v3.1 Published 2024-01-09
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
84/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable No privileges 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
A flaw was found in CRI-O that involves an experimental annotation leading to a container being unconfined. This may allow a pod to specify and get any amount of memory/cpu, circumventing the kubernetes scheduler and potentially resulting in a denial of service in the node.

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

A flaw in CRI-O allows an experimental annotation to render containers unconfined, bypassing Kubernetes-defined memory and CPU limits. This enables a pod to consume unbounded resources, circumventing scheduler decisions and potentially causing denial of service on the node.

MitigationRestrict or disable the experimental annotation feature in CRI-O configuration, or apply vendor-provided patches that address this vulnerability.

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
Openshift Container PlatformApplication
Affected:= 3.11= 4.13= 4.14

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
None
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/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. Identify CRI-O version
    Run 'crio --version' or check the crio package version using your system package manager (rpm -q cri-o or dpkg -s crio)
    Affected if The installed CRI-O version corresponds to OpenShift versions 3.11, 4.13, or 4.14, which are in the affected product range
  2. Verify OpenShift platform version
    Run 'oc get clusterversion' or check the OpenShift platform version via 'openshift-install version' or the OCP release information
    Affected if The OpenShift Container Platform version is 3.11, 4.13, or 4.14 specifically
  3. Check for experimental annotation feature in CRI-O config
    Inspect the CRI-O configuration file at /etc/crio/crio.conf and look for settings related to 'experimental' annotations or features (search for 'experimental' keywords in the configuration)
    Affected if Experimental annotation support is enabled in the CRI-O configuration file
  4. Inspect running pods for suspicious annotations
    Use 'kubectl get pods -o json' or 'oc get pods -o json' and examine pod annotations for any 'experimental' prefixed annotations that could indicate abuse of this feature
    Affected if Pods are found with experimental annotations that bypass container resource constraints

You are affected if you are running OpenShift Container Platform 3.11, 4.13, or 4.14 with CRI-O and the experimental annotation feature is enabled in the CRI-O configuration.

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
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Restrict or disable the experimental annotation feature in CRI-O configuration, or apply vendor-provided patches that address this vulnerability.

Recommended fix Moderate confidence

OpenShift Container Platform 4.15 or later (contains patched CRI-O)

  1. Identify your current OpenShift Container Platform version using 'oc get clusterversion'
  2. For OpenShift 4.13: upgrade to OpenShift 4.14 or later (4.14.x containing the CRI-O fix)
  3. For OpenShift 4.14: upgrade to OpenShift 4.15 or later
  4. For OpenShift 3.11: plan migration to a supported OpenShift 4.x version as 3.11 is end-of-life
  5. Run 'oc adm upgrade --to=<target-version>' to initiate the upgrade
  6. After upgrade, verify CRI-O version with 'crio --version' and confirm resource limits work correctly by testing pod resource requests/limits
Caveat Upgrading OpenShift minor versions may require compatibility checks for custom resources and operators; also note OpenShift 3.11 has reached end-of-life with no path to upgrade

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

Fix this in Openshift Container Platform Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation2.0 h
  • Testing4.0 h
  • Review / QA2.0 h
12.0 hours of engineering $2,120
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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-2023-6476 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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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
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