CVE-2022-41354

Workarounds

There are no workarounds besides upgrading.

Credits

Thank you to bean.zhang of HIT-IDS ChunkL Team who discovered the issue and reported it confidentially according to our guidelines.

For more information

• Open an issue in the Argo CD issue tracker or discussions
• Join us on Slack in channel #argo-cd

All versions of Argo CD starting with v0.5.0 are vulnerable to an information disclosure bug allowing unauthorized users to enumerate application names by inspecting API error messages. An attacker could use the discovered application names as the starting point of another attack. For example, the attacker might use their knowledge of an application name to convince an administrator to grant higher privileges (social engineering).

Many Argo CD API endpoints accept an application name as the only parameter. Since Argo CD RBAC requires both the application name and its configured project name (and, if apps-in-any-namespace is enabled, the application's namespace), Argo CD fetches the requested application before performing the RBAC check. If the application does not exist, the API returns a "not found". If the application does exist, and the user does not have access, the API returns an "unauthorized" error. By trial and error, an attacker can infer which applications exist and which do not.

Note that application resources are not fetched for API calls from unauthenticated users. If your Argo CD instance is accessible from the public internet, unauthenticated users will not be able to cause Argo CD to make Kubernetes API calls.

The patch changes API behavior to return "unauthorized" both when the application is missing and when the user is not authorized to access it. This change in API behavior may impact API clients. Check your code to make sure it will handle the new API behavior properly.

CVE-2022-41354 has a CVSS score of 5.3 (Medium). The vector is network-reachable, no privileges required, and no user interaction. A CVSS score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether this affects your application depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable in your environment. A fixed version is available (2.5.16, 2.6.7, 2.4.28); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.

Kodem intelligence

A patch for this vulnerability has been released in the following Argo CD versions:

• v2.6.7
• v2.5.16
• v2.4.28

1. What is CVE-2022-41354? CVE-2022-41354 is a medium-severity security vulnerability in github.com/argoproj/argo-cd (go), affecting versions >= 0.5.0, <= 1.8.7. It is fixed in 2.5.16, 2.6.7, 2.4.28.
2. How severe is CVE-2022-41354? CVE-2022-41354 has a CVSS score of 5.3 (Medium). This score reflects the worst-case severity of the vulnerability, not your specific exposure. Whether it represents real risk in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable.
3. Which packages are affected by CVE-2022-41354?
   • github.com/argoproj/argo-cd (go) (versions >= 0.5.0, <= 1.8.7)
   • github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2 (go) (versions >= 2.5.0, < 2.5.16)
4. Is there a fix for CVE-2022-41354? Yes. CVE-2022-41354 is fixed in 2.5.16, 2.6.7, 2.4.28. Upgrade to this version or later.
5. Is CVE-2022-41354 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2022-41354 is exploitable in your environment depends on whether the vulnerable code is present and reachable. A CVSS score is a worst-case rating; it does not account for your specific deployment, configuration, or usage patterns. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to show which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so you can focus on the ones that represent real risk. Get a demo
6. What actually determines whether CVE-2022-41354 is exploitable, and how bad it is? Exploitability and impact are not fixed properties of a CVE. They depend on runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A high CVSS score on a dependency that never runs is not the same as real risk. Kodem, an Intelligent Application Security platform, uses runtime intelligence to reveal which vulnerabilities actually execute in production, so teams prioritize the ones that genuinely matter.
7. How do I fix CVE-2022-41354?
   • Upgrade github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2 to 2.5.16 or later
   • Upgrade github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2 to 2.6.7 or later
   • Upgrade github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2 to 2.4.28 or later