Rancher Webhook is misconfigured during upgrade process

Exploitation

No confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next marks exploitation only from CISA KEV.

CVSS

9.9 · CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS

• CVE-2023-22651: 0.78% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 55.94 (FIRST EPSS, 2026-11-03). This is a model estimate, not proof of exploitation or customer exposure.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact A failure in the update logic of Rancher's admission Webhook may lead to the misconfiguration of the Webhook. This component enforces validation rules and security checks before resources are admitted into the Kubernetes cluster. When the Webhook is operating in a degraded state, it no longer validates any resources, which may result in severe privilege escalations and data corruption. The issue only affects users that upgrade from 2.6.x or 2.7.x to 2.7.2. Users that did a fresh install of 2.7.2 (and did not follow an upgrade path) are not affected. The command below can be executed on the local cluster to determine whether the cluster is affected by this issue: If the resulting webhook quantity is 0, the Rancher instance is affected. Patches Patched versions include release 2.7.3 and later versions. Workarounds If you are affected and cannot update to a patched Rancher version, the recommended workaround is to manually reconfigure the Webhook with the script below. Please…

Published by the source

24 Apr 2023, 22:34 UTC

Last modified by the source

27 May 2025, 14:46 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 15:09 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-6m9f-pj6w-w87g

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2023-22651

Advisory: Rancher Webhook is misconfigured during upgrade process
IDs: CVE-2023-22651, GHSA-6m9f-pj6w-w87g
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2023-22651 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:09 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: Critical (CVSS 9.9)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: github.com/rancher/rancher 2.7.3, 0.0.0-20230424183121-6d9a175954c6. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/rancher/rancher: affected >= 2.7.2, <= 2.7.2; >= 0.0.0-20220922131902-ec6d6d3a7616, < 0.0.0-20230424183121-6d9a175954c6; fixed in 2.7.3, 0.0.0-20230424183121-6d9a175954c6

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/rancher/rancher: check the installed version with your package manager.

## Supported action
Upgrade each affected component to a fixed version on its release line. For a transitive dependency, upgrade the parent package or add an override or constraint, then regenerate the lockfile. Redeploy every environment that ran an affected version.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on github.com/rancher/rancher.
- Repeat the inspection and confirm that only fixed versions remain installed.

## Rollback considerations
- Keep the previous lockfile and deployment artifact. Rolling back reinstates the vulnerable version, so apply any documented mitigation while you fix forward.

## Unresolved questions
- Which deployments run an affected version?
- Exploitation status can change. Check again before lowering the priority.
- Mark the work resolved only after the fixed version is verified in production.

## Sources
- Verified: https://github.com/advisories/GHSA-6m9f-pj6w-w87g (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-6m9f-pj6w-w87g lists affected ranges: Go github.com/rancher/rancher >=2.7.2 =0.0.0-20220922131902-ec6d6d3a7616 <0.0.0-20230424183121-6d9a175954c6)

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