Red Hat OpenShift GitOps ArgoCD Custom Resource privileges assignment

Summaryinfo

A vulnerability classified as critical was found in Red Hat OpenShift GitOps. This affects an unknown function of the component ArgoCD Custom Resource Handler. Such manipulation leads to privileges assignment. This vulnerability is documented as CVE-2025-13888. The attack can be executed remotely. There is not any exploit available.

Detailsinfo

A vulnerability, which was classified as critical, has been found in Red Hat OpenShift GitOps (version unknown). Affected by this issue is an unknown function of the component ArgoCD Custom Resource Handler. The manipulation with an unknown input leads to a privileges assignment vulnerability. Using CWE to declare the problem leads to CWE-266. A product incorrectly assigns a privilege to a particular actor, creating an unintended sphere of control for that actor. Impacted is confidentiality, integrity, and availability. CVE summarizes:

A flaw was found in OpenShift GitOps. Namespace admins can create ArgoCD Custom Resources (CRs) that trick the system into granting them elevated permissions in other namespaces, including privileged namespaces. An authenticated attacker can then use these elevated permissions to create privileged workloads that run on master nodes, effectively giving them root access to the entire cluster.

The advisory is shared for download at access.redhat.com. This vulnerability is handled as CVE-2025-13888 since 12/02/2025. The exploitation is known to be easy. The attack may be launched remotely. The exploitation needs additional levels of successful authentication. There are neither technical details nor an exploit publicly available. The current price for an exploit might be approx. USD $5k-$25k (estimation calculated on 12/15/2025). The MITRE ATT&CK project declares the attack technique as T1068.

There is no information about possible countermeasures known. It may be suggested to replace the affected object with an alternative product.

The vulnerability is also documented in the vulnerability database at EUVD (EUVD-2025-203383). Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

Productinfo

Type

• Virtualization Software

Vendor

• Red Hat

Name

• OpenShift GitOps

License

• open-source

Website

• Vendor: https://www.redhat.com/

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Once again VulDB remains the best source for vulnerability data.

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