CVE-2026-42876

MEDIUMNVD 4.94.9—
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

This medium-severity CVE scores 4.9 under NVD CVSS v3. EPSS exploit probability: 0.2%, top 88% of all CVEs by exploit prediction. GitHub Security Advisory data not yet ingested — confidence will rise once GHSA publishes (typical lag: hours to days for open-source ecosystem CVEs; never for infrastructure-only CVEs).

Triggered by: NVD CVSS baseline
Sources: epss, nvd
4.9
EchelonGraph verdictMonitorLow exploitation likelihood right now — keep watching.
  • Lower severity and no public exploit yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: 0%CVSS: 4.9Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

No vendor fix yet — apply a workaround or compensating control (WAF / firewall / segmentation) and watch for a patch.

External Secrets Operator reads information from a third-party service and automatically injects the values as Kubernetes Secrets. Prior to 2.4.1, a user who only has permission to create ExternalSecret resources can cause the operator to create a Secret that Kubernetes will automatically populate with a long-lived token for the specified service account. This effectively allows the user to impersonate any service account in the namespace without needing direct create permissions on TokenRequest or Secrets of that type. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.4.1.

CVSS v3
4.9
EG Score
4.9(medium)
EG Risk
22(Track)
EG Risk 22/100SSVC: Track

EG Risk is EchelonGraph's 0–100 priority score: it fuses intrinsic severity with real-world exploitation and automatability so you can rank equal-severity CVEs and fix the most dangerous first. Higher = act sooner. Distinct from the 0–10 EG Score (severity).

How it’s computed
Severity49% × 45%
Exploitation0% × 40%
Automatability0% × 15%
Action: Routine — remediate on your standard cadence.
EPSS
12.0%
KEV
Not listed

Published

May 11, 2026

Last Modified

May 13, 2026

Advisory Details (3)

Auto-updated Jun 27, 2026
Patch available. Sources: github_commit, github_release, github.
github Patch Available

Priviledge escalation with secret overwriting · Advisory · external-secrets/external-secrets · GitHub

https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/security/advisories/GHSA-fq7h-9x26-6j22
github_release Patch Available

v2.4.1

Patch available: external-secrets/external-secrets v2.4.1

https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/releases/tag/v2.4.1
github_commit

commit 4ddd240af7fe (external-secrets/external-secrets)

Fix landed in external-secrets/external-secrets commit 4ddd240af7fe — awaiting tagged release

https://github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/commit/4ddd240af7fe88725d9857b9a0c198073502e288

Affected Packages

(1 across 1 ecosystem)
Go(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFixed inDependents
github.com/external-secrets/external-secrets/apis———

Weakness Classification(1)

MITRE Common Weakness Enumeration — the root-cause categories this CVE belongs to.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 9× in last 7d / 32× in last 30d)

Each row is a source pipeline that fetched or updated this CVE on that date, with what changed. For example, "NVD update" means NVD published or revised its analysis for this CVE; "MITRE cvelistV5" means we ingested or refreshed it from the CNA feed. Most recent first.

  1. 2026-07-25 14:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-24 14:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-07-23 14:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-07-23 03:12 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-07-22 14:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-07-21 15:24 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-07-20 17:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-07-19 14:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-07-19 02:29 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-07-18 10:04 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-07-16 17:03 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-07-16 10:49 UTCOSV refresh
  13. 2026-07-15 16:57 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-07-15 02:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-07-13 22:30 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-07-13 06:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-07-11 08:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-07-09 19:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-07-08 15:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-07-07 13:46 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-07-06 16:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-07-06 16:27 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-07-06 02:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-07-06 02:23 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-07-05 02:30 UTCEPSS rescore
Show 55 more
  1. 2026-07-04 06:31 UTCEPSS rescore
  2. 2026-07-01 15:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  3. 2026-06-30 23:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  4. 2026-06-29 14:06 UTCEPSS rescore
  5. 2026-06-28 14:07 UTCEPSS rescore
  6. 2026-06-28 04:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  7. 2026-06-27 03:08 UTCEPSS rescore
  8. 2026-06-25 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  9. 2026-06-25 13:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  10. 2026-06-24 14:05 UTCEPSS rescore
  11. 2026-06-23 21:33 UTCEPSS rescore
  12. 2026-06-22 14:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  13. 2026-06-22 14:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  14. 2026-06-21 14:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  15. 2026-06-21 14:56 UTCEPSS rescore
  16. 2026-06-21 01:59 UTCEPSS rescore
  17. 2026-06-19 19:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  18. 2026-06-18 17:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  19. 2026-06-18 17:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  20. 2026-06-17 17:53 UTCEPSS rescore
  21. 2026-06-16 17:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  22. 2026-06-15 17:49 UTCEPSS rescore
  23. 2026-06-13 23:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  24. 2026-06-12 23:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  25. 2026-06-12 23:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  26. 2026-06-11 14:00 UTCEPSS rescore
  27. 2026-06-10 22:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  28. 2026-06-10 13:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  29. 2026-06-10 13:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  30. 2026-06-08 14:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  31. 2026-06-08 14:17 UTCEPSS rescore
  32. 2026-06-07 15:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  33. 2026-06-07 15:25 UTCEPSS rescore
  34. 2026-06-05 22:47 UTCEPSS rescore
  35. 2026-06-05 06:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  36. 2026-06-05 06:10 UTCEPSS rescore
  37. 2026-06-04 13:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  38. 2026-06-04 13:12 UTCEPSS rescore
  39. 2026-06-02 20:13 UTCEPSS rescore
  40. 2026-06-01 13:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  41. 2026-06-01 13:52 UTCEPSS rescore
  42. 2026-05-31 00:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  43. 2026-05-31 00:16 UTCEPSS rescore
  44. 2026-05-28 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  45. 2026-05-28 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  46. 2026-05-27 13:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  47. 2026-05-27 13:40 UTCEPSS rescore
  48. 2026-05-26 13:44 UTCEPSS rescore
  49. 2026-05-26 07:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  50. 2026-05-26 07:18 UTCEPSS rescore
  51. 2026-05-20 22:38 UTCEPSS rescore
  52. 2026-05-20 22:38 UTCEPSS rescore
  53. 2026-05-20 13:12 UTCEG score recompute
  54. 2026-05-20 11:22 UTCEPSS rescore
  55. 2026-05-20 11:22 UTCEPSS rescore

Related CVEs(same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2026-42876?
CVE-2026-42876 is a medium vulnerability published on May 11, 2026. External Secrets Operator reads information from a third-party service and automatically injects the values as Kubernetes Secrets. Prior to 2.4.1, a user who only has permission to create ExternalSecret resources can cause the operator to create a Secret that Kubernetes will automatically populate…
When was CVE-2026-42876 disclosed?
CVE-2026-42876 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on May 11, 2026, with the most recent update on May 13, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
Is CVE-2026-42876 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-42876 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 12.0% percentile likelihood of exploitation in the next 30 days — higher percentiles indicate greater predicted risk.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-42876?
CVE-2026-42876 has a CVSS v3 base score of 4.9 (NVD).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-42876?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2026-42876, EchelonGraph cross-links them in the Vendor Advisories panel below — those typically contain the canonical remediation steps, fixed version numbers, and any vendor-specific mitigations.

Dependency Blast Radius

See which npm, PyPI, Go, and Maven packages are affected by CVE-2026-42876

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