On a compromised node, the virt-handler service account can be used to modify all node specs

Exploitation

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

CVSS

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

EPSS

• CVE-2023-26484: 0.61% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 49.34 (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 If a malicious user has taken over a Kubernetes node where virt-handler (the KubeVirt node-daemon) is running, the virt-handler service account can be used to modify all node specs. This can be misused to lure-in system-level-privileged components (which can for instance read all secrets on the cluster, or can exec into pods on other nodes). This way a compromised node can be used to elevate privileges beyond the node until potentially having full privileged access to the whole cluster. The simplest way to exploit this, once a user could compromise a specific node, is to set with the virt-handler service account all other nodes to unschedulable and simply wait until system-critical components with high privileges appear on its node. Since this requires a node to be compromised first, the severity of this finding is considered Medium. Patches Not yet available. Workarounds Gatekeeper users can add a webhook which will block the virt-handler service account to modify the spec of…

Published by the source

16 Mar 2023, 16:04 UTC

Last modified by the source

27 Mar 2023, 22:24 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 14:58 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-cp96-jpmq-xrr2

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2023-26484

Advisory: On a compromised node, the virt-handler service account can be used to modify all node specs
IDs: CVE-2023-26484, GHSA-cp96-jpmq-xrr2
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2023-26484 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 14:58 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 8.2)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor response not established. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go kubevirt.io/kubevirt: affected <= 0.59.0

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

## Supported action
No complete vendor fix is recorded. Follow the primary source's mitigation guidance and check this record again before closing anything.

## Required regression checks
- Run the test suite and a production build.
- Exercise the features that depend on kubevirt.io/kubevirt.
- 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-cp96-jpmq-xrr2 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-cp96-jpmq-xrr2 lists affected ranges: Go kubevirt.io/kubevirt >=0 <=0.59.0)

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