CVE-2024-36537
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 · uneditedInsecure permissions in cert-manager v1.14.4 allows attackers to access sensitive data and escalate privileges by obtaining the service account's token.
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 confidenceInsecure permissions in cert-manager v1.14.4 allow attackers to access sensitive data and escalate privileges by obtaining the service account's token. This is likely an RBAC misconfiguration where the cert-manager service account has been granted excessive permissions beyond what is required for its function, enabling token theft and lateral movement within the cluster.
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= 1.14.4CVSS 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
- High
- User interaction
- None
- Scope
- Unchanged
- Confidentiality
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/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 checksWork through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.
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Verify cert-manager versionRun 'kubectl get deployment -n cert-manager cert-manager -o jsonpath="{.spec.template.spec.containers[0].image}"' or check the cert-manager operator version if usedAffected if The installed version is exactly 1.14.4
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Identify cert-manager service accountRun 'kubectl get serviceaccount -n cert-manager' to list service accounts in the cert-manager namespaceAffected if A cert-manager service account exists in the cert-manager namespace
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Check ClusterRole bindings for cert-managerRun 'kubectl get clusterrolebinding -o wide | grep -i cert-manager' to see which ClusterRoles are bound to cert-manager service accountsAffected if The cert-manager service account is bound to a ClusterRole with broad permissions
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Inspect cert-manager ClusterRole permissionsRun 'kubectl get clusterrole <cert-manager-cluster-role-name> -o yaml' (replace with actual role name from previous step) and review the rules section for excessive access to secrets, pods, or impersonation permissionsAffected if The ClusterRole grants permissions beyond what cert-manager requires (e.g., read all secrets, pod exec, impersonate users)
You are affected if cert-manager version 1.14.4 is installed AND the cert-manager service account has been granted excessive RBAC permissions beyond the minimum needed for certificate management.
Generated from the published advisory. Verify against your own configuration.
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.
From vendor dataReview and restrict cert-manager's RBAC permissions to follow least-privilege principles, and upgrade to a patched version if available from the vendor.
- Consultation3.0 h
- Implementation4.0 h
- Testing3.0 h
- Review / QA2.0 h
An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $3,408.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-36537 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.
References Go to the primary sourcePrimary sources — vendor advisories, patches and trackers. Where our summary and a reference disagree, the reference wins.
Primary sourcesPractitioner notes
ContributedPeer-ranked notes from engineers who’ve handled CVE-2024-36537 in production — separate from our analysis above.
The advisory tells you what broke. It rarely tells you what actually worked. If you’ve dealt with this one, that detail is what the next engineer is searching for.
- The version that genuinely resolved it — not the one the vendor claimed
- A config change or rule that shut the vector down
- A gotcha in the upgrade path that cost you an afternoon
No notes yet
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- Verified mitigations, workarounds, and config changes
- Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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