dbcve.org
Missing AuthorizationWeakness · CWE-862

CVE-2026-14251

HIGH · 7.7 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-07-15
Mitigation only
No fix yet — a mitigation exists. There is no fixed release. A documented workaround reduces exposure in the meantime.
See remediation →
83/100
Remediation priority · High
Remotely reachable Zero-click 5 weeks old

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 the OpenShift GitOps operator. The ClusterRole reconciler does not validate resource ownership when reconciling ClusterRole objects. A namespace-scoped Argo CD instance can trigger deletion of a ClusterRole owned by a cluster-scoped Argo CD instance by crafting a name collision, resulting in a denial of service.

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

The OpenShift GitOps operator's ClusterRole reconciler fails to validate resource ownership when reconciling ClusterRole objects. This allows a namespace-scoped Argo CD instance to trigger deletion of a ClusterRole owned by a cluster-scoped Argo CD instance by exploiting a name collision, causing denial of service.

MitigationImplement ownership validation in the ClusterRole reconciler to ensure namespace-scoped Argo CD instances cannot modify or delete ClusterRoles owned by cluster-scoped instances; apply proper RBAC controls and least-privilege principles to Argo CD instance scoping.

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

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
None
Integrity
None
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/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 namespace-scoped Argo CD instances
    Run 'oc get argocd -A' or 'kubectl get argocd -A' and inspect each instance's 'scope' field in the output. Look for instances where scope is set to 'Namespaced' or not set to 'Cluster'.
    Affected if Any Argo CD instance has scope set to 'Namespaced' or is missing a scope field (defaults to namespaced in some configurations)
  2. Identify cluster-scoped Argo CD instances
    Run 'oc get argocd -A' or 'kubectl get argocd -A' and filter for instances where scope is explicitly set to 'Cluster'.
    Affected if A cluster-scoped Argo CD instance exists (scope=Cluster) alongside any namespace-scoped instance in the same cluster
  3. List ClusterRoles created by Argo CD
    Run 'oc get clusterrole | grep -i argocd' or 'kubectl get clusterrole | grep -i argocd' to see all ClusterRoles with 'argocd' in the name.
    Affected if Multiple Argo CD ClusterRoles exist with similar or identical names that could collide between namespace-scoped and cluster-scoped instances
  4. Check for ownership annotations on Argo CD ClusterRoles
    Run 'oc get clusterrole <name> -o yaml' or 'kubectl get clusterrole <name> -o yaml' for each Argo CD ClusterRole and inspect the 'ownerReferences' field in metadata. Look for ClusterRoles lacking proper ownerReferences linking to the correct Argo CD instance.
    Affected if Any Argo CD ClusterRole is missing ownerReferences or has incorrect ownership metadata that does not match its creating Argo CD instance's scope
  5. Verify namespace-scoped instance can list ClusterRoles
    Check if any namespace-scoped Argo CD instance's service account has permissions to list or delete ClusterRoles by examining its ClusterRoleBinding: 'oc get clusterrolebinding | grep <instance-service-account>'
    Affected if A namespace-scoped Argo CD instance has a ClusterRoleBinding granting it permissions to modify ClusterRoles

You are affected if you run both namespace-scoped and cluster-scoped Argo CD instances in the same cluster and the namespace-scoped instance has permissions that could allow it to delete ClusterRoles owned by the cluster-scoped instance.

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.

From vendor data
Mitigation available No clean upgrade yet — mitigate in the meantime
Mitigation

Implement ownership validation in the ClusterRole reconciler to ensure namespace-scoped Argo CD instances cannot modify or delete ClusterRoles owned by cluster-scoped instances; apply proper RBAC controls and least-privilege principles to Argo CD instance scoping.

Have this fixed Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing6.0 h
  • Review / QA3.0 h
21.0 hours of engineering $3,680
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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-2026-14251 in production — separate from our analysis above.

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What this is

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What belongs here
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  • Version or environment caveats, and links to real fixes
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