dbcve.org
Turbonomic Prometurbo AgentApplication · Ibm

CVE-2026-6389

HIGH · 7.8 CVSS v3.1 Published 2026-04-30
Fix available
A fix is available. Upgrade to 8.18.0 or later.
See remediation →
80/100
Remediation priority · High
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
IBM Turbonomic prometurbo agent 8.16.0 through 8.17.6 IBM Turbonomic Application Resource Management grants excessive cluster‑wide permissions, including unrestricted read access to all secrets. An attacker that compromises the operator or its service account can exfiltrate sensitive credentials, escalate privileges, and potentially achieve full cluster compromise.

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 IBM Turbonomic prometurbo agent versions 8.16.0 through 8.17.6 is configured with excessive cluster-wide permissions, specifically granting unrestricted read access to all Kubernetes secrets. An attacker who compromises the operator or its associated service account can read sensitive credentials stored in secrets, enabling privilege escalation and potential full cluster compromise.

MitigationImplement least-privilege RBAC by creating a dedicated service account with only the minimum permissions required for the prometurbo agent to function, removing the cluster-wide secret read access. Audit and restrict the agent's cluster permissions immediately.

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
Turbonomic Prometurbo AgentApplication
Affected:>= 8.16.0, < 8.18.0

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
Local
Complexity
Low
Privileges
Low
User interaction
None
Scope
Unchanged
Confidentiality
High
Integrity
High
Availability
High

CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:L/PR:L/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 checks

Work through these to decide whether this CVE applies to you.

  1. Identify prometurbo agent installation and version
    Run 'kubectl get deployment -A | grep -i turbo' or check Helm releases to find the prometurbo agent. Then run 'kubectl get deployment <prometurbo-deployment> -n <namespace> -o jsonpath="{.spec.template.spec.containers[0].image}"' to retrieve the image tag showing the version.
    Affected if Version is 8.16.0 through 8.17.6 (versions below 8.18.0)
  2. Find the service account used by prometurbo
    Run 'kubectl get deployment <prometurbo-deployment> -n <namespace> -o jsonpath="{.spec.template.spec.serviceAccount}"' to identify the service account name.
    Affected if A service account is assigned to the prometurbo pod (this is required for the vulnerability to apply)
  3. Check ClusterRole binding for secret read access
    Run 'kubectl get clusterrolebinding -o yaml' and search for bindings that reference the prometurbo service account. Then run 'kubectl get clusterrole <role-name> -o yaml' to inspect permissions, looking for 'get', 'list', or 'watch' on 'secrets' at cluster scope.
    Affected if The prometurbo service account has a ClusterRole with 'get', 'list', or 'watch' permissions on 'secrets' without namespace restrictions
  4. Verify if ClusterRole grants unrestricted secrets access
    Review the ClusterRole rules: check for a rule with 'resources: ["secrets"]' that has no 'namespace' restriction or uses a wildcard 'apiGroups: [""]' at cluster scope. Run 'kubectl auth can-i get secrets --clusterwide --as=system:serviceaccount:<namespace>:<service-account-name>' to confirm access.
    Affected if The prometurbo service account can read secrets across all namespaces or in namespaces it does not own

Your environment is affected if the prometurbo agent version is 8.16.0 through 8.17.6 and its service account has cluster-wide permissions to read Kubernetes secrets.

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
Upgrade available Upgrade to 8.18.0 or later
Fixed in 8.18.0
Interim mitigation

Implement least-privilege RBAC by creating a dedicated service account with only the minimum permissions required for the prometurbo agent to function, removing the cluster-wide secret read access. Audit and restrict the agent's cluster permissions immediately.

Recommended fix High confidence

8.18.0 or later

  1. Identify the current Turbonomic Prometurbo Agent version currently deployed in the cluster using kubectl or Helm
  2. Confirm the installed version falls within the affected range: >= 8.16.0 and < 8.18.0
  3. Review the IBM Turbonomic upgrade documentation for upgrading the Prometurbo Agent
  4. Plan maintenance window for the upgrade, ensuring appropriate cluster backup and rollback procedures are in place
  5. Upgrade the Prometurbo Agent to version 8.18.0 or later following IBM's documented upgrade procedure
  6. Verify the upgrade was successful by checking the new version and ensuring the Prometurbo Agent is running correctly
  7. Confirm that the excessive permissions have been removed by reviewing the RBAC configuration for the Prometurbo service account

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

Fix this in Turbonomic Prometurbo Agent Scoped from the published advisory
  • Consultation4.0 h
  • Implementation8.0 h
  • Testing8.0 h
  • Review / QA4.0 h
24.0 hours of engineering $4,160
Get the upgrade done

An estimate, not a bill — we confirm scope with you before any work starts. Need it this week? Rush from $6,656.

Scan for this in your stack

Free · runs locally
dbcve dependency scanner

Check whether your project pulls in CVE-2026-6389 — 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-2026-6389 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