CVE-2024-36540
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 external-secrets v0.9.16 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 confidenceexternal-secrets v0.9.16 has insecure permissions that allow attackers to obtain the service account token, potentially exposing sensitive secrets managed by the operator and enabling privilege escalation 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= 0.9.16CVSS 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
- High
- Integrity
- High
- Availability
- High
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/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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Check installed External Secrets Operator versionRun 'kubectl get deployment -n external-secrets' and check the version in the image tag, or use 'helm list -n external-secrets' if deployed via HelmAffected if The deployed version is exactly 0.9.16
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Identify the service account used by external-secrets operatorRun 'kubectl get deployment external-secrets -n external-secrets -o jsonpath="{.spec.template.spec.serviceAccount}"' to find the service account name, typically 'external-secrets' in the 'external-secrets' namespaceAffected if A service account exists and is being used by the operator
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Check RBAC ClusterRoleBindings granting access to the service accountRun 'kubectl get clusterrolebindings -o json | jq -r '.items[] | select(.subjects[]? | select(.kind=="ServiceAccount" and .name=="external-secrets")) | .metadata.name'' to find bindings that reference the external-secrets service accountAffected if Any ClusterRoleBinding exists that assigns roles to the external-secrets service account
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Verify which subjects can impersonate or access the service accountRun 'kubectl auth can-i --list --as=<unauthorized-user-or-group>' or inspect all ClusterRoleBindings that reference the service account namespace to identify who has accessAffected if Any ClusterRoleBinding grants permissions to subjects other than the external-secrets operator's own service account or cluster-admin
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Check if pods in other namespaces can access the external-secrets service account tokenReview if any RoleBinding in any namespace grants 'get' or 'list' on secrets in the external-secrets namespace, or if any ClusterRole allows impersonation of the external-secrets service accountAffected if Non-admin users or pods in other namespaces have permissions to read secrets or impersonate the service account
You are affected if the External Secrets Operator version is exactly 0.9.16 AND unauthorized subjects have RBAC permissions that allow them to access the operator's service account or its secrets.
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 RBAC permissions for the external-secrets service account to least privilege, ensuring the token cannot be accessed by unauthorized pods or users.
- Consultation4.0 h
- Implementation6.0 h
- Testing4.0 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 $4,544.
Scan for this in your stack
Free · runs locallyCheck whether your project pulls in CVE-2024-36540 — 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-2024-36540 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
- No weaponised exploit code, or anything meant to cause harm
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