CVE-2026-44938

HIGHPre-NVD 8.88.8
EchelonGraph scoreLOW confidence

This high-severity CVE scores 8.8 under the CNA's CVSS (NVD's own analysis pending). EPSS exploit-prediction score not yet available (the EPSS model rescores nightly; freshly-published CVEs typically appear within 48 hours). 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: cna:github_m
8.8
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixSerious severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet.
  • High severity, but no confirmed exploitation yet
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS: —CVSS: 8.8Exploit: NoneExposed: 0

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

Fleet has PSS Bypass through addLabelsFromOptions in Fleet Agent

Impact

A vulnerability has been identified in Fleet's agent-side deployer, which did not filter security-sensitive keys from namespaceLabels in fleet.yaml (or BundleDeployment.spec.options.namespaceLabels) when applying them to the target namespace.

An attacker with git push access to a Fleet-monitored repository could overwrite Pod Security Standards (PSS) enforcement labels on a target namespace. This allows the attacker to weaken admission controls and deploy workloads that PSS policies would otherwise block.

Important: The final impact on confidentiality, integrity, and availability depends on the specific permissions of the leaked credentials.

Fleet team recommends you:

  • Review your system for potentially leaked credentials.
  • Replace any credentials that may be compromised.

Please consult the associated MITRE ATT&CK - Technique - Disable or Modify Tools for further information about this category of attack.

Patches

To fix this issue, upgrade to a patched version. The updated Fleet deployer filters out labels with the pod-security.kubernetes.io/ prefix when applying namespaceLabels to a namespace. This change preserves the PSS labels set by cluster administrators and prevents them from being overwritten through fleet.yaml or BundleDeployment options.

Patched versions of Fleet include releases v0.15.2, v0.14.6, v0.13.11, and v0.12.15.

Workarounds

If you can’t immediately upgrade to a patched version, use one of the following workarounds:

1 - Deploy NeuVector(primary workaround)

Deploy NeuVector (SUSE Security) and configure an admission control Deny rule for "Run as privileged" in Protect mode.

  • NeuVector evaluates pod specs independently of Kubernetes PSS namespace labels. It blocks privileged containers even if the labels are downgraded.
  • Although the namespace labels are still overwritten, the attack cannot exploit confidentiality, integrity, or availability without a privileged pod.

2 - Restrict repository access (secondary workaround)

Note: The following measure reduces the attack surface but does not close the vulnerability:

  • In a multi-tenant setup, this restriction removes the primary attack vector. However, this measure only reduces the attack surface and doesn't completely close the vulnerability. It may also not be operationally viable for all organizations. ´

Credits

This security issue was reported by the following collaborators according to our responsible disclosure policy:

  • Radisauskas Arnoldas from NATO and the NATO Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

References

CVSS v3
8.8
EG Score
8.8(low)
EPSS
—
KEV
Not listed

Published

July 1, 2026

Last Modified

July 1, 2026

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-44938(1)

These vendors published their own advisory mentioning this CVE — often with vendor-specific remediation steps + affected product lists not in NVD.

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 12× in last 7d / 12× 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. 2026-07-06 20:49 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-07-06 09:53 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-07-05 22:59 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-07-05 12:06 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-07-05 01:13 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-07-04 14:20 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-07-04 03:27 UTCEG score recompute
  8. 2026-07-03 16:35 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-07-03 05:42 UTCEG score recompute
  10. 2026-07-02 18:47 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-07-02 07:54 UTCEG score recompute
  12. 2026-07-01 21:02 UTCEG score recompute

Frequently asked(4)

What is CVE-2026-44938?
CVE-2026-44938 is a high vulnerability published on July 1, 2026. Fleet has PSS Bypass through addLabelsFromOptions in Fleet Agent Impact A vulnerability has been identified in Fleet's agent-side deployer, which did not filter security-sensitive keys from namespaceLabels in fleet.yaml (or BundleDeployment.spec.options.namespaceLabels) when applying them to the…
When was CVE-2026-44938 disclosed?
CVE-2026-44938 was first published in the National Vulnerability Database on July 1, 2026. EchelonGraph re-ingests CVE updates from NVD on a 2-hour cycle, so this page reflects the latest published state.
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-44938?
CVE-2026-44938 has a CVSS v4.0 base score of 8.8 (CNA self-assessment; NVD's own analysis pending). The EG score is currently aggregating — additional source signals are being incorporated as they become available..
How do I remediate CVE-2026-44938?
Patch to the fixed version published by the affected vendor. Where vendor advisories exist for CVE-2026-44938, 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

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