Summary
Attacker can cause Kyverno user to unintentionally consume insecure image
Full technical description
An issue was found in Kyverno that allowed an attacker to control the digest of images used by Kyverno users. The issue would require the attacker to compromise the registry that the Kyverno fetch their images from. The attacker could then return a vulnerable image to the the user and leverage that to further escalate their position. As such, the attacker would need to know which images the Kyverno user consumes and know of one of multiple exploitable vulnerabilities in previous digests of the images. Alternatively, if the attacker has compromised the registry, they could craft a malicious image with a different digest with intentionally placed vulnerabilities and deliver the image to the user.
An attacker was not be able to control other parameters of the image than the digest by exploiting this vulnerability.
Users pulling their images from trusted registries are not impacted by this vulnerability. There is no evidence of this being exploited in the wild.
The issue has been patched in 1.11.0.
The vulnerability was found during an ongoing security audit of Kyverno conducted by Ada Logics, facilitated by OSTIF and funded by the CNCF.
Members of the community have raised concerns over the similarity between this vulnerability and the one identified with CVE-2023-46737; They are two different issues with two different root causes and different levels of impact. Some differences are:
- The current advisory (GHSA-3hfq-cx9j-923w) has its root cause in Kyverno whereas the root cause of CVE-2023-46737 is in Cosigns code base.
- The impact of the current advisory (GHSA-3hfq-cx9j-923w) is that an attacker can trick Kyverno into consuming a different image than the one the user requested; The impact of CVE-2023-46737 is an endless data attack resulting in a denial-of-service.
- The fix of the current advisory (GHSA-3hfq-cx9j-923w) does not result in users being secure from CVE-2023-46737 and vice versa.
Impact
CVE-2023-47630 has a CVSS score of 7.1 (High). The vector is network-reachable, low privileges required, and user interaction required. 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 (1.10.5); upgrading removes the vulnerable code path.
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
Kodem Kai can prioritize this vulnerability in your dependency tree and generate a fix recommendation.
Frequently Asked Questions
- What is CVE-2023-47630? CVE-2023-47630 is a high-severity security vulnerability in github.com/kyverno/kyverno (go), affecting versions < 1.10.5. It is fixed in 1.10.5.
- How severe is CVE-2023-47630? CVE-2023-47630 has a CVSS score of 7.1 (High). 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.
- Which versions of github.com/kyverno/kyverno are affected by CVE-2023-47630? github.com/kyverno/kyverno (go) versions < 1.10.5 is affected.
- Is there a fix for CVE-2023-47630? Yes. CVE-2023-47630 is fixed in 1.10.5. Upgrade to this version or later.
- Is CVE-2023-47630 exploitable, and should I be worried? Whether CVE-2023-47630 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-2023-47630 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-2023-47630? Upgrade
github.com/kyverno/kyvernoto 1.10.5 or later.