vulnerability / NVI-00012114 / Revision 2
KEDA: Privilege escalation from namespace admin to cluster admin via KEDA TriggerAuthentication
GitHub lists this reviewed advisory for github.com/kedacore/keda, github.com/kedacore/keda/v2. Published version ranges and source prerequisites are shown below; this is not an inspection of a visitor’s application.
This report has not inspected your inventory, configuration, deployed build, reachability or evidence. A catalog listing and a severity score do not establish exposure or compromise.
01 / Meaning
Why it matters
Published affected context helps an owner decide what evidence to gather. This report has not examined your application.
9.9 critical
GitHub source severity; exploitability and local consequence require separate evidence.
As of · GitHub Advisory Database
0.602%
FIRST EPSS model v2026.06.15; exploitation probability over 30 days, percentile 0.48784. Missing scores are unknown.
As of · FIRST EPSS
02 / Applicability
The affected context
Affected versions, configuration prerequisites and known exclusions are public. Confirm each one against the deployed service.
github.com/kedacore/keda
source listed<= 1.5.0
## Summary A namespace admin who creates a `TriggerAuthentication` and a `ScaledObject` in their own namespace can make the KEDA operator send its own ServiceAccount token to a tenant-controlled URL. That token holds `["*"]/["*"] get` cluster-wide, so it reads every Secret in every namespace, plus `batch/jobs` and `horizontalpodautoscalers` create/delete cluster-wide, `*/scale` update on any workload, `validatingwebhookconfigurations` update (rewrite or disable cluster admission), and `apiservices` update (hijack aggregated API routing). This is effectively privilege escalation from namespace admin to cluster admin in real environments: a cluster-wide Secret read alone is enough to find a token for a more privileged ServiceAccount, and the cluster-wide `batch/jobs` create lets the attacker run a workload in any namespace whose Pod Security Admission level permits it (or that is PSA-exempt, such as `kube-system` , `kyverno`) to reach the node filesystem and a control-plane kubeconfig. This is an incomplete fix of CVE-2025-68476: its content filter only requires the loaded file to be a JWT whose subject begins with `system:serviceaccount:`, which the operator's own projected token
github.com/kedacore/keda/v2
source listed< 2.21.0
## Summary A namespace admin who creates a `TriggerAuthentication` and a `ScaledObject` in their own namespace can make the KEDA operator send its own ServiceAccount token to a tenant-controlled URL. That token holds `["*"]/["*"] get` cluster-wide, so it reads every Secret in every namespace, plus `batch/jobs` and `horizontalpodautoscalers` create/delete cluster-wide, `*/scale` update on any workload, `validatingwebhookconfigurations` update (rewrite or disable cluster admission), and `apiservices` update (hijack aggregated API routing). This is effectively privilege escalation from namespace admin to cluster admin in real environments: a cluster-wide Secret read alone is enough to find a token for a more privileged ServiceAccount, and the cluster-wide `batch/jobs` create lets the attacker run a workload in any namespace whose Pod Security Admission level permits it (or that is PSA-exempt, such as `kube-system` , `kyverno`) to reach the node filesystem and a control-plane kubeconfig. This is an incomplete fix of CVE-2025-68476: its content filter only requires the loaded file to be a JWT whose subject begins with `system:serviceaccount:`, which the operator's own projected token
03 / Response
What to do next
- investigate
Identify the exact component and deployed version, examine the linked publisher’s conditions, and retain evidence of any mitigation.
Confirm current vendor support, compatibility and deployment evidence. This report has not tested a fix in your system. FIRST EPSS
A fixed release is not deployment evidence.
Check current vendor support and compatibility. After making a change, verify the deployed build and relevant runtime conditions. Keep the evidence, owner and time. An updated lockfile alone does not prove what is running.
04 / Limits
What this report cannot establish
- Customer inventory, deployment, reachability and exploitation have not been inspected.
05 / Provenance
Sources you can inspect
Each assertion retains its source. Mirrored records may repeat one underlying publisher; additional links are not independent corroboration.
- GHSA-637c-6jxx-4rwm ↗
GitHub Advisory Database · vendor advisory
Observed . GitHub Advisory Database; CC-BY-4.0. Each advisory links its original attribution. Null normalizes fields.
- CVE-2026-77524 ↗
FIRST EPSS · official catalog
Observed . FIRST EPSS; probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, not local compromise. Dataset date/model retained; FIRST services terms apply.
Public revision history
Only published revisions appear here. Routine fetches do not create a material-change event.
- Revision 2 ·
Dated EPSS estimate updated; this is not a new disclosure or proof of exploitation.
- Revision 1 ·
First indexed by Null; source disclosure date is shown separately.