CVE-2026-41485 | Kyverno Controller Denial of Service via forEach Mutation Panic

Exp

Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. Prior to versions 1.17.2 and 1.16.4, an unchecked type assertion in the `forEach` mutation handler allows any user with permission to create a `Policy` or `ClusterPolicy` to crash the cluster-wide background controller into a persistent CrashLoopBackOff. The same bug also causes the admission controller to drop connections and block all matching resource operations. The crash loop persists until the policy is deleted. The vulnerability is confined to the legacy engine, and CEL-based policies are unaffected. Versions 1.17.2 and 1.16.4 fix the issue.

Published: 2026-04-24 Last update: 2026-04-27 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]

Conclusion & alert: CVE-2026-41485 is rated Exploit Available (51.4/100): CVSS High severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.05%). Core evidence: 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). Mandatory action: Public exploits are available—assess exposure, apply mitigations, and prioritize patching.

Risk is dynamic; we continuously reassess and refresh what is shown on this page as upstream context changes.

Public exploit references (Exploit-DB) for CVE-2026-41485

EDB-ID Source Kind Published Link
nvd_ref exploit_tag Exploit-DB ↗

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-41485

EPSS lead: Daily EPSS estimates relative likelihood of exploitation; percentile ranks this CVE among scored vulnerabilities (higher = more severe relative rank).

# Date Old EPSS score New EPSS score Delta (New - Old)
1 2026-05-26 0.04% 0.05% +0.01%
2 2026-04-24 0.04%

Full EPSS history (2 records total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-41485

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
7.7 3.1 HIGH
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:N/I:N/A:H 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:N)
Data isn’t meaningfully altered or forged.
Availability (A:H)
Could take the service down hard or make it unusable for people who depend on it.
3.1 4.0 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-41485

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-41485

GHSA-fpjq-c37h-cqcv · Severity: high · Ecosystem: go — Kyverno Controller Denial of Service via forEach Mutation Panic

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-41485

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
kyverno kyverno >= 1.13.0, < 1.16.4 cpe:2.3:a:kyverno:kyverno:*:-:*:*:*:*:*:*
kyverno kyverno >= 1.17.0, < 1.17.2 cpe:2.3:a:kyverno:kyverno:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-41485

cvelogic Threat Intelligence