CVE-2026-42880 | ArgoCD ServerSideDiff is vulnerable to Kubernetes Secret Extraction

Exp

Argo CD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. From versions 3.2.0 to before 3.2.11 and 3.3.0 to before 3.3.9, there is a missing authorization and data-masking gap in Argo CD's ServerSideDiff endpoint that allows an attacker with read-only access to extract plaintext Kubernetes Secret data from etcd via the Kubernetes API server's Server-Side Apply dry-run mechanism. This issue has been patched in versions 3.2.11 and 3.3.9.

Published: 2026-05-07 Last update: 2026-05-11 Assigner: [email protected] Source: [email protected]
NVD Status：Analyzed，CVE State: published
View at NVD, CVE.org, EUVD

CVE-2026-42880 is rated Exploit Available (56.5/100): CVSS Critical severity, with low exploitation likelihood (EPSS 0.03%). 1 public exploit reference(s) are indexed (Exploit-DB). 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-2026-42880

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

Exploit prediction scoring system (EPSS) score for CVE-2026-42880

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 2026-05-08 — 0.03% —

Full EPSS history (1 record total)

Common vulnerability scoring system (CVSS) metrics for CVE-2026-42880

CVSS metrics for this CVE.

Base score Version Severity Vector Exploitability Impact Score source
9.6 3.1 CRITICAL
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/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:H)
Serious risk that confidential data gets exposed in a big way.
Integrity (I:H)
They could widely tamper with or forge data—trust in the data is badly hurt.
Availability (A:N)
Service keeps running; no real outage angle.
 3.1 5.8 [email protected]

Weakness enumeration for CVE-2026-42880

GitHub Security Advisory for CVE-2026-42880

GHSA-3v3m-wc6v-x4x3 · Severity: critical · Ecosystem: go — ArgoCD ServerSideDiff is vulnerable to Kubernetes Secret Extraction

Affected software / configurations for CVE-2026-42880

Vendor Product Version Raw CPE
argoproj argo_cd >= 3.2.0, < 3.2.11 cpe:2.3:a:argoproj:argo_cd:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*
argoproj argo_cd >= 3.3.0, < 3.3.9 cpe:2.3:a:argoproj:argo_cd:*:*:*:*:*:*:*:*

References for CVE-2026-42880

cvelogic Threat Intelligence