dbcve.org
Cert ManagerApplication

CVE-2026-25518

MEDIUM · 5.9 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-02-04
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 1.18.5 / 1.19.3 or later.
See remediation →
68/100
Remediation priority · Elevated
Remotely reachable No privileges Zero-click Patch available

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
cert-manager adds certificates and certificate issuers as resource types in Kubernetes clusters, and simplifies the process of obtaining, renewing and using those certificates. In versions from 1.18.0 to before 1.18.5 and from 1.19.0 to before 1.19.3, the cert-manager-controller performs DNS lookups during ACME DNS-01 processing (for zone discovery and propagation self-checks). By default, these lookups use standard unencrypted DNS. An attacker who can intercept and modify DNS traffic from the cert-manager-controller pod can insert a crafted entry into cert-manager's DNS cache. Accessing this entry will trigger a panic, resulting in denial‑of‑service (DoS) of the cert-manager controller. The issue can also be exploited if the authoritative DNS server for the domain being validated is controlled by a malicious actor. This issue has been patched in versions 1.18.5 and 1.19.3.

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

A detailed technical summary for this CVE is being prepared.

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
Cert ManagerApplication
Affected:>= 1.18.0, < 1.18.5>= 1.19.0, < 1.19.3

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

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

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 1.18.5 / 1.19.3 or later
Fixed in 1.18.51.19.3
Vendor patch github.com →
Recommended fix High confidence

cert-manager v1.18.5 or v1.19.3 (v1.19.3 recommended for latest features and fixes)

  1. 1. Check current cert-manager version: kubectl get pods -n cert-manager -o jsonpath='{.items[0].spec.containers[0].image}'
  2. 2. For Kubernetes clusters managed by Helm, upgrade cert-manager: helm repo update && helm upgrade cert-manager jetstack/cert-manager --namespace cert-manager --version v1.19.3
  3. 3. For Kubernetes clusters with plain manifests, apply the new manifests for version 1.19.3 from the cert-manager releases page
  4. 4. Verify the cert-manager controller pod is running: kubectl get pods -n cert-manager -l app.kubernetes.io/instance=cert-manager
  5. 5. Confirm the new version is deployed: kubectl get pods -n cert-manager -o jsonpath='{.items[0].spec.containers[0].image}' | grep -E 'v1\.18\.5|v1\.19\.3'
Caveat Review cert-manager release notes for any breaking changes between current version and target version; v1.19.x may have additional changes beyond this security fix

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

We can perform the upgrade in your staging environment and verify nothing breaks — typical engagement from $1,600. Get the upgrade done

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-25518 — or any other known-vulnerable package — straight from your lock files. Free and open source; it runs locally and uploads nothing.

Get it on GitHub Scan in the browser

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-2026-25518 in production — separate from our analysis above.

No notes yet

Be the first to add a field note for this CVE — a mitigation you’ve verified, a version caveat, or a link to a working fix. Sign in above to contribute.

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