KEDA: Privilege escalation via TriggerAuthentication Vault address
Summary
KEDA, a Kubernetes event-driven autoscaler, allows a namespace administrator who can create TriggerAuthentication and ScaledObject resources to point hashiCorpVault.address to an attacker-controlled endpoint. KEDA then sends the operator pod's projected ServiceAccount token to that endpoint as a Vault login credential. The filter added for CVE-2025-68476 accepts this token, so the attacker can obtain the operator's cluster-wide permissions, including broad Secret reads. No special conditions beyond namespace admin rights are described.
Affected
- KEDA 2.20.2 and earlier
- The CVE record lists all versions before 2.21.0 as affected
Fixed in
- KEDA 2.21.0 (commit 1e21cc7, service account token audience enforcement)
Workaround
- No vendor-published workaround for unpatched versions is known.
- Upgrade to KEDA 2.21.0 is the fix.
Exploitation
- CISA SSVC: exploitation status 'poc' (proof of concept available)
- Automatable: no
- Technical impact: total
Our recommendation
- Upgrade KEDA to 2.21.0 or later. Re-running the installer does not upgrade an existing installation.
- Before upgrading, inventory TriggerAuthentications and ClusterTriggerAuthentications that use Kubernetes authentication or boundServiceAccountToken.
- Configure Vault roles to accept the new audience (vault) before or after the upgrade.
- Restrict who can create TriggerAuthentication and ScaledObject resources in shared clusters.
- Review KEDA operator permissions and monitor for unexpected Vault login requests.
Public exploits
PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit and Exploit-DB list nothing for this CVE.
Research sources
- GitHub Security Advisory GHSA-637c-6jxx-4rwm github.com
- KEDA v2.21.0 release notes github.com
- Fix commit 1e21cc7 github.com
- OSV entry GHSA-637c-6jxx-4rwm osv.dev
- KEDA 2.22 migration guide keda.sh
- KEDA 2.21 HashiCorp Vault authentication keda.sh
- PT-2026-114287 (vulners) vulners.com
Researched and written up in English and German by an AI (Claude by Anthropic) based on NVD, CISA, EPSS and the sources listed. The vendor information is authoritative. Researched on 30 Oct 2026, 15:21.
Original description (NVD)
KEDA is a Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaling component. In version 2.20.2 and earlier, a namespace administrator who can create TriggerAuthentication and ScaledObject resources can set hashiCorpVault.address to a tenant-controlled endpoint and select Kubernetes authentication without an explicit credential. KEDA then uses the operator pod's projected ServiceAccount token and sends it to that endpoint as a Vault login credential. The JWT-shape filter from the prior CVE-2025-68476 remediation accepts the operator token because its subject is a Kubernetes ServiceAccount, so the attacker can obtain the operator's cluster-wide permissions, including broad Secret reads and workload or admission-related operations. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.21.0.
Sources
The tracker combines official, freely usable data sources – updated continuously:
- NVD (NIST) – CVEs, rating (CVSS), affected products
- CISA KEV – vulnerabilities confirmed by CISA as actively exploited
- CISA Vulnrichment – CISA assessment (SSVC) in the official CVE record
- FIRST EPSS – probability of exploitation
- Microsoft MSRC – Patch Tuesday: vulnerabilities, severity, updates
- PoC-in-GitHub – public proof-of-concept repositories
- Metasploit (Rapid7) – modules of the Metasploit Framework
- Exploit-DB (OffSec) – archive of public exploits (links only)
- Patch days: official vendor pages (linked per vendor) (Vendor patch days)
This product uses data from the NVD API but is not endorsed or certified by the NVD. EPSS data © FIRST.org.
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