Kyverno vulnerable to bypass of policy rules that use namespace selectors in match statements

Exploitation

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

CVSS

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

EPSS

• CVE-2025-46342: 0.77% estimated exploitation activity in the next 30 days; percentile 55.54 (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.

Summary Due to a missing error propagation in function GetNamespaceSelectorsFromNamespaceLister in pkg/utils/engine/labels.go it may happen that policy rules using namespace selector(s) in their match statements are mistakenly not applied during admission review request processing. As a consequence, security-critical mutations and validations are bypassed, potentially allowing attackers with K8s API access to perform malicious operations. Details As a policy engine Kyverno is a critical component ensuring the security of Kubernetes clusters by apply security-relevant policy rules in the Kubernetes admission control process. We encountered a case where Kyverno did not apply policy rules which should have been applied. This happened in both the mutation and the validation phase of admission control. Effectively Kyverno handled the admission review requests as if those policy rules did not exist. Consequently, the Kube API request was accepted without applying security-relevant patches…

Published by the source

29 Apr 2025, 16:39 UTC

Last modified by the source

5 May 2025, 21:59 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 15:09 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-jrr2-x33p-6hvc

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# Patch Next advisory brief: CVE-2025-46342

Advisory: Kyverno vulnerable to bypass of policy rules that use namespace selectors in match statements
IDs: CVE-2025-46342, GHSA-jrr2-x33p-6hvc
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/cve-2025-46342 (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: High (CVSS 8.5)
Exploitation: no confirmed exploitation recorded. Patch Next confirms exploitation only from CISA KEV.
Vendor response: Vendor fix available; fixed versions by package: github.com/kyverno/kyverno 1.14.0, 1.13.5. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/kyverno/kyverno: affected < 1.13.5; >= 1.14.0-alpha.1, < 1.14.0; fixed in 1.13.5, 1.14.0

## Suggested inspection (read-only)
- Go github.com/kyverno/kyverno: 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/kyverno/kyverno.
- 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-jrr2-x33p-6hvc (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-jrr2-x33p-6hvc lists affected ranges: Go github.com/kyverno/kyverno >=0 =1.14.0-alpha.1 <1.14.0)

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