Summary
Workarounds
Users can replace the Manager & Controller certificate manually by following the instructions in documented here. However, upgrading to 5.2.2 and replacing Manager/REST API certificate is recommended to provide additional security enhancements to prevent possible attempted exploit and resulting RCE. See release notes for additional details.
Credits
Thank you to Dejan Zelic at Offensive Security for responsibly reporting this vulnerability.
For More Information
View the NeuVector Security Policy
General NeuVector documentation
Impact
A user can reverse engineer the JWT token (JSON Web Token) used in authentication for Manager and API access, forging a valid NeuVector Token to perform malicious activity in NeuVector. This can lead to an RCE.
Affected versions
Security releases
Kodem intelligence
Severity tells you how bad this could be in the worst case. It does not tell you whether you are exposed. Exploitability and impact are functions of runtime truth: whether the vulnerable code is present, reachable, and actually executes in your application. A vulnerable package can sit in your dependency tree and never run.
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. Kodem's runtime-powered SCA identifies whether this CVE is reachable in your applications.
Remediation advice
Upgrade to NeuVector version 5.2.2 or later and latest Helm chart (2.6.3+).
- In 5.2.2 the certificate for JWT-signing is created automatically by controller with validity of 90days and rotated automatically.
- Use Helm-based deployment/upgrade to 5.2.2 to generate a unique certificate for Manager, REST API, ahd registry adapter. Helm based installation/upgrade is required in order to automatically generate certificates upon initial installation and each subsequent upgrade.
- See release notes for manual/yaml based deployment advice.
- 5.2.2 also implements additional protections against possible RCE for the feature of custom compliance scripts.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2023-32188? CVE-2023-32188 is a critical-severity security vulnerability in github.com/neuvector/neuvector (go), affecting versions < 0.0.0-20230930010431-57d107118e92. It is fixed in 0.0.0-20231003121714-be746957ee7c.
- Which versions of github.com/neuvector/neuvector are affected by CVE-2023-32188? github.com/neuvector/neuvector (go) versions < 0.0.0-20230930010431-57d107118e92 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2023-32188? Yes. CVE-2023-32188 is fixed in 0.0.0-20231003121714-be746957ee7c. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2023-32188 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2023-32188 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
- What actually determines whether CVE-2023-32188 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.
- How do I fix CVE-2023-32188? Upgrade
github.com/neuvector/neuvectorto 0.0.0-20231003121714-be746957ee7c or later.