Rancher's restricted PodSecurityPolicy does not prevent containers from running as a privileged user

Exploitation

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

CVSS 4.0

7.1 · CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:N/VI:H/VA:N/SC:N/SI:N/SA:N · score source

EPSS

No dated EPSS signal available.

As published by the source; long descriptions are shortened.

Impact The restricted pod security policy (PSP), provided in Rancher versions from 2.0 up to and including 2.6.3, has a deviation from the upstream restricted policy provided in Kubernetes, in which Rancher's PSP has runAsUser set to runAsAny, while upstream has runAsUser set to MustRunAsNonRoot. This allows containers to run as any user, including a privileged user (root), even when Rancher's restricted policy is enforced on a project or at cluster level. A new restricted-noroot PSP was created to prevent pods from running as root when this policy is enforced. This new policy was introduced, instead of patching the current provided restricted policy, in order to avoid breaking users' workloads that are using the restricted PSP and that might be running as a privileged user. Note: Running containers as root increases the risk of a compromised container being used by a malicious actor as an attack platform to further exploit the user's environment. It is a security best practice to…

Published by the source

3 Mar 2026, 14:51 UTC

Last modified by the source

3 Mar 2026, 14:51 UTC

Source last checked

26 Oct 2026, 15:15 UTC

1. Revision 1 · created · 26 Oct 2026

   Published from ghsa record GHSA-hwm2-4ph6-w6m5

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# Patch Next advisory brief: GHSA-hwm2-4ph6-w6m5

Advisory: Rancher's restricted PodSecurityPolicy does not prevent containers from running as a privileged user
IDs: GHSA-hwm2-4ph6-w6m5
Record: https://patchnext.com/advisories/ghsa-hwm2-4ph6-w6m5 (revision 1, source checked 26 Oct 2026, 15:15 UTC)
Inventory: none attached. This brief comes from a public page and does not say whether any deployment is affected.
Severity: High (CVSS 7.1)
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 2.6.4. A vendor fix does not mean a deployment is fixed.

## Affected components
- Go github.com/rancher/rancher: affected >= 2.0.0, < 2.6.4; fixed in 2.6.4

## 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-hwm2-4ph6-w6m5 (GitHub-reviewed advisory GHSA-hwm2-4ph6-w6m5 lists affected ranges: Go github.com/rancher/rancher >=2.0.0 <2.6.4)

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