CVE-2024-53349 in kuadrant
Summary
by MITRE • 03/21/2025
Insecure permissions in kuadrant v0.11.3 allow attackers to gain access to the service account's token, leading to escalation of privileges via the secretes component in the k8s cluster
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Analysis
by VulDB Data Team • 03/21/2025
The vulnerability identified as CVE-2024-53349 affects the kuadrant v0.11.3 Kubernetes operator, specifically targeting insecure permissions that enable unauthorized access to service account tokens within the cluster environment. This flaw resides in the secrets component of the kuadrant deployment, creating a critical security weakness that can be exploited by malicious actors to escalate their privileges. The issue stems from improper access controls that fail to adequately restrict permissions for service account tokens, allowing attackers to obtain credentials that grant elevated access to cluster resources.
The technical implementation of this vulnerability involves the kuadrant operator's failure to properly configure resource permissions during the deployment process. When the operator creates or manages secrets within the Kubernetes cluster, it does not enforce appropriate access control mechanisms that would normally restrict who can read or modify these sensitive credentials. This misconfiguration allows attackers with minimal privileges to access the service account tokens that are typically protected by Kubernetes RBAC policies. The vulnerability manifests through the insecure handling of secret objects that contain authentication tokens, which are then accessible to unauthorized entities within the cluster.
The operational impact of this vulnerability extends beyond simple credential theft, as it provides attackers with a pathway for privilege escalation within the Kubernetes environment. Once an attacker gains access to a service account token, they can leverage this credential to perform actions that would normally be restricted to authorized users, including accessing other resources, creating or modifying cluster components, and potentially exfiltrating sensitive data. The attack vector typically involves identifying the service account and its associated secrets, then exploiting the insecure permissions to read the token contents, which can then be used to authenticate to the Kubernetes API server with elevated privileges. This represents a significant threat to cluster security and can result in complete compromise of the affected Kubernetes environment.
Organizations should implement immediate mitigations to address this vulnerability by enforcing proper RBAC policies that restrict access to service account tokens and secrets. The recommended approach includes configuring appropriate role-based access controls that limit who can read or modify secrets within the kuadrant namespace, implementing namespace-level restrictions, and ensuring that service accounts are granted only the minimum necessary permissions. Additionally, organizations should conduct comprehensive audits of their Kubernetes deployments to identify any other components that may be suffering from similar permission misconfigurations. This vulnerability aligns with CWE-284, which addresses improper access control, and maps to ATT&CK technique T1548.001 for privilege escalation through abuse of credentials, making it a critical concern for security teams managing Kubernetes environments. The remediation process should also include monitoring for unauthorized access attempts and implementing proper logging mechanisms to detect potential exploitation attempts.