CVE-2026-27111 [Medium] | Security Bypass in Kargo

Kargo manages and automates the promotion of software artifacts. From v1.9.0 to v1.9.2, Kargo's authorization model includes a promote verb -- a non-standard Kubernetes "dolphin verb" -- that gates the ability to advance Freight through a promotion pipeline. This verb exists to separate the ability to manage promotion-related resources from the ability to trigger promotions, enabling fine-grained access control over what is often a sensitive operation. The promote verb is correctly enforced in Kargo's legacy gRPC API. However, three endpoints in the newer REST API omit this check, relying only on standard Kubernetes RBAC for the underlying resource operations (patch on freights/status or create on promotions). This permits users who hold those standard permissions -- but who were deliberately not granted promote -- to bypass the intended authorization boundary. The affected endpoints are /v1beta1/projects/{project}/freight/{freight}/approve, /v1beta1/projects/{project}/stages/{stage}/promotions, and /v1beta1/projects/{project}/stages/{stage}/promotions/downstream. This vulnerability is fixed in v1.9.3.

#	Date	Old EPSS score	New EPSS score	Delta (New - Old)
1	2026-02-21	—	0.03%	—

Date

Old EPSS score

New EPSS score

Delta (New - Old)

2026-02-21

—

0.03%

—

Base score	Version	Severity	Vector	Exploitability	Impact	Score source
5.3	4.0	MEDIUM	`CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:N) Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network. Attack complexity (AC:L) Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable. Attack requirements (AT:N) No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability. Privileges required (PR:L) Low privileges are required. User interaction (UI:N) No user interaction is required. Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:N) No confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system. Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:L) Limited integrity impact on the vulnerable system. Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:N) No availability impact on the vulnerable system. Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N) No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems. Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:L) Limited integrity impact on subsequent systems. Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N) No availability impact on subsequent systems. Exploit maturity (threat) (E:X) Not defined: no reliable threat intelligence; scoring assumes the worst case (equivalent to Attacked). Confidentiality requirement (CR:X) Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case). Integrity requirement (IR:X) Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case). Availability requirement (AR:X) Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case). Modified attack vector (MAV:X) Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Vector (AV). Modified attack complexity (MAC:X) Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Complexity (AC). Modified attack requirements (MAT:X) Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Requirements (AT). Modified privileges required (MPR:X) Not defined: scoring uses the Base Privileges Required (PR). Modified user interaction (MUI:X) Not defined: scoring uses the Base User Interaction (UI). Modified vulnerable system confidentiality impact (MVC:X) Not defined: scoring uses the Base VC metric. Modified vulnerable system integrity impact (MVI:X) Not defined: scoring uses the Base VI metric. Modified vulnerable system availability impact (MVA:X) Not defined: scoring uses the Base VA metric. Modified subsequent system confidentiality impact (MSC:X) Not defined: scoring uses the Base SC metric. Modified subsequent system integrity impact (MSI:X) Not defined: scoring uses the Base SI metric. Modified subsequent system availability impact (MSA:X) Not defined: scoring uses the Base SA metric. Safety (supplemental) (S:X) Not evaluated. Automatable (supplemental) (AU:X) Not evaluated. Recovery (supplemental) (R:X) Not evaluated. Value density (supplemental) (V:X) Not evaluated. Vulnerability response effort (supplemental) (RE:X) Not evaluated. Provider urgency (supplemental) (U:X) Not evaluated.	—	—	[email protected]
5.0	3.1	MEDIUM	`CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N` Click to expand Attack vector (AV:N) Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine. Attack complexity (AC:L) Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup. Privileges required (PR:L) A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin. User interaction (UI:N) Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping. Scope (S:C) Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius. Confidentiality (C:N) Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way. Integrity (I:L) Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes. Availability (A:N) Service keeps running; no real outage angle.	3.1	1.4	[email protected]

Base score

Version

Severity

Vector

Exploitability

Impact

Score source

5.3

4.0

MEDIUM

CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:L/VA:N/SC:N/SI:L/SA:N/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X

Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:N): Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network.
Attack complexity (AC:L): Exploitation conditions are straightforward and stable.
Attack requirements (AT:N): No additional preconditions are required beyond normal reachability.
Privileges required (PR:L): Low privileges are required.
User interaction (UI:N): No user interaction is required.
Vulnerable system confidentiality impact (VC:N): No confidentiality impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system integrity impact (VI:L): Limited integrity impact on the vulnerable system.
Vulnerable system availability impact (VA:N): No availability impact on the vulnerable system.
Subsequent system confidentiality impact (SC:N): No confidentiality impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system integrity impact (SI:L): Limited integrity impact on subsequent systems.
Subsequent system availability impact (SA:N): No availability impact on subsequent systems.
Exploit maturity (threat) (E:X): Not defined: no reliable threat intelligence; scoring assumes the worst case (equivalent to Attacked).
Confidentiality requirement (CR:X): Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Integrity requirement (IR:X): Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Availability requirement (AR:X): Not defined: insufficient information; scoring treats this like High (worst case).
Modified attack vector (MAV:X): Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Vector (AV).
Modified attack complexity (MAC:X): Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Complexity (AC).
Modified attack requirements (MAT:X): Not defined: scoring uses the Base Attack Requirements (AT).
Modified privileges required (MPR:X): Not defined: scoring uses the Base Privileges Required (PR).
Modified user interaction (MUI:X): Not defined: scoring uses the Base User Interaction (UI).
Modified vulnerable system confidentiality impact (MVC:X): Not defined: scoring uses the Base VC metric.
Modified vulnerable system integrity impact (MVI:X): Not defined: scoring uses the Base VI metric.
Modified vulnerable system availability impact (MVA:X): Not defined: scoring uses the Base VA metric.
Modified subsequent system confidentiality impact (MSC:X): Not defined: scoring uses the Base SC metric.
Modified subsequent system integrity impact (MSI:X): Not defined: scoring uses the Base SI metric.
Modified subsequent system availability impact (MSA:X): Not defined: scoring uses the Base SA metric.
Safety (supplemental) (S:X): Not evaluated.
Automatable (supplemental) (AU:X): Not evaluated.
Recovery (supplemental) (R:X): Not evaluated.
Value density (supplemental) (V:X): Not evaluated.
Vulnerability response effort (supplemental) (RE:X): Not evaluated.
Provider urgency (supplemental) (U:X): Not evaluated.

—

[email protected]

5.0

3.1

MEDIUM

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:L/A:N Click to expand

Attack vector (AV:N): Could be attacked over the internet or any normal routed network—not just someone sitting at the machine.
Attack complexity (AC:L): Once they can reach the bug, pulling it off is straightforward—no weird race conditions or rare setup.
Privileges required (PR:L): A normal user session is enough; they don’t have to be admin.
User interaction (UI:N): Nobody has to click “OK” or open a trap file; it can work without a victim helping.
Scope (S:C): Breaking this can reach past the original component and bite other resources—bigger blast radius.
Confidentiality (C:N): Doesn’t really leak secrets in a meaningful way.
Integrity (I:L): Attackers could change some data, but it’s limited—not everything goes.
Availability (A:N): Service keeps running; no real outage angle.

3.1

1.4

[email protected]

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-27111

Vendor	Product	Version	Raw CPE
akuity	kargo	>= 1.9.0, < 1.9.3	cpe:2.3:a:akuity:kargo::::::kubernetes::*

References for CVE-2026-27111

URL	Tags
https://github.com/akuity/kargo/commit/833314cad5513d48d89431493325ae44c1324a49	Patch
https://github.com/akuity/kargo/security/advisories/GHSA-5vvm-67pj-72g4	Vendor Advisory

URL

CVE-2026-27111 | Kargo has Missing Authorization Vulnerabilities in Approval & Promotion REST API Endpoints

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-27111

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-27111

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-27111

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-27111

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-27111

References for CVE-2026-27111