CVE-2026-54523

CRITICALPre-NVD 9.69.6
EchelonGraph scoreMEDIUM confidence

“—” beside the score: it is equal to the CVSS score beside it.

This critical-severity CVE scores 9.6 under a secondary CVSS source (NVD's own analysis pending). EPSS exploit probability: 0.5% (38th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs). No GitHub Security Advisory CVSS is on record for this CVE.

Triggered by: Headline CVSS from a secondary CVSS source
Sources: EPSS, a secondary CVSS source
Elevated
9.6EG
EchelonGraph verdictPlan a fixRemediate within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high (the SSVC decision on this page).
  • CISA's Vulnrichment rates exploitation as PoC; EchelonGraph holds no exploit-code reference for it
CISA-KEV: Not listedEPSS PROB: 0.5%CVSS: 9.6Exploit: No code on recordExposed services: Not assessed

A fix is available — apply it.

Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. From 1.18.0 until 1.18.2, the NamespacedMutatingPolicy CEL compiler exposes the generator library to matchConditions, allowing a namespace-scoped policy to invoke generator.apply(namespace, resources) with an arbitrary target namespace. The validation in pkg/cel/policies/mpol/validate.go checks that the policy compiles but does not enforce namespace scope, and GenerateResources in pkg/cel/libs/context.go does not reject the cross-namespace target. A user who can create NamespacedMutatingPolicy objects in one namespace can cause the admission controller, operating with cluster-wide privileges, to create ConfigMaps, NetworkPolicies, Secrets, RoleBindings, and other resources in another namespace, enabling unauthorized modification and potential privilege escalation. This issue is fixed in version 1.18.2.

CVSS v3
9.6
EG Score
9.6CRITICALmedium confidence
EG Risk
59
EG Risk 59/100

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 (value × EchelonGraph’s weight)
Severity96% × 45%
The EG Score, 9.6 of 10.
Exploitation40% × 40%
EchelonGraph's fixed weight for EG-KEV Tier 3 (Elevated): a constant, not a probability.
Automatability0% × 15%
CISA's SSVC Automatable value: no (Vulnrichment).
SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph): Track at low, Track* at medium and Attend at high mission impact.
Exploitation public PoC (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE.
Action: A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.
EPSS PROB
0.5%
EPSS %ILE
38th
KEV
Not listed

SSVC (CISA's decision table, applied by EchelonGraph)Track at low, Track* at medium and Attend at high mission impact.

A fix is available. Apply it within your standard update timelines at low or medium mission impact and sooner than that at high.

Exploitation public PoC (CISA Vulnrichment) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). All three are CISA's SSVC values (Vulnrichment). EchelonGraph applied CISA's decision table to them; CISA publishes SSVC inputs and the table, not a decision for each CVE. Mission impact is CISA's Mission & Well-being decision point, and only you can judge it. CISA's table makes it high when Mission Prevalence is Essential — the vulnerable component "directly provides capabilities that constitute at least one MEF for at least one entity" (MEF: mission essential function) — or when Public Well-Being Impact is Irreversible: "multiple fatalities are likely", the cyber-physical system "is likely lost or destroyed", "extreme or serious externalities" are imposed on other parties, or social systems such as elections or the financial grid "are destabilized and potentially collapse". CISA's decision table

BOD 26-04 (CISA's remediation timeline, Table 1)14 days if the affected system is publicly exposed; Fix on system upgrade if it is not.

In CISA KEV no (CISA's KEV catalog) · Automatable no (CISA Vulnrichment) · Technical impact total (CISA Vulnrichment). Whether your system is publicly exposed is yours to answer. BOD 26-04 binds US Federal Civilian Executive Branch agencies; for anyone else it is CISA's published timeline, a reference rather than an obligation. The directive · how EchelonGraph applies it

Published

August 26, 2026

Last Modified

September 9, 2026

Advisory Details (6)

Auto-updated Oct 7, 2026
Patch available. Sources: github_commit, github_pr, github_release, github.
GitHub advisoryMentions a patch (unverified)

NamespacedMutatingPolicy generator.apply() namespace argument unvalidated in v1.18.1 - allows cross-namespace resource generation via admission controller · Advisory · kyverno/kyverno · GitHub

https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/security/advisories/GHSA-79gf-7frw-68m9
GitHub commit

commit 657393744144 (kyverno/sdk)

Fix landed in kyverno/sdk commit 657393744144 — awaiting tagged release

https://github.com/kyverno/sdk/commit/6573937441443e1ba5af9fbb28d5c0f20297f9df
GitHub release Patch Available

v1.18.2

Patch available: kyverno/kyverno v1.18.2

https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/releases/tag/v1.18.2
GitHub pull request

fix(gpol,mpol): enforce namespace boundary in generator.apply() (backport GHSA-79gf-7frw-68m9 to release-1.18)

Fix merged in kyverno/kyverno PR #16238 on 2026-06-05 — awaiting tagged release

https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/pull/16238
GitHub commit

commit 5164bcdeda5b (kyverno/kyverno)

Fix landed in kyverno/kyverno commit 5164bcdeda5b — awaiting tagged release

https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/commit/5164bcdeda5b57678bc2d7a03ecc2cbb02982dae
GitHub commit

commit 0919553c0ea1 (kyverno/kyverno)

Fix landed in kyverno/kyverno commit 0919553c0ea1 — awaiting tagged release

https://github.com/kyverno/kyverno/commit/0919553c0ea1904f8d891280c92018da97946a06

Vendor Advisories for CVE-2026-54523(1)

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

Affected Packages

(1 across 1 ecosystem)
Go(1)
PackageVulnerable rangeFix by version rangeDependents
github.com/kyverno/kyverno—
  • 1.18.0 up to 1.18.2: fixed in 1.18.2
—

Weakness Classification(1)

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

Data Freshness Timeline

(refreshed 15× in last 7d / 57× in last 30d)

Each row is a time one of our pipelines fetched, updated or re-scored this CVE. 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. An arrow marks a change the record states ("CVSS v3 → 9.1"); EPSS and GHSA rows show the values recorded at that time, not what changed (EPSS values are rounded; hover one for the exact figures). Most recent first.

  1. 2026-10-13 16:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  2. 2026-10-13 15:08 UTCEG score recompute
  3. 2026-10-12 16:34 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  4. 2026-10-12 15:33 UTCEG score recompute
  5. 2026-10-11 19:39 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-10-11 16:54 UTCEG score recompute
  7. 2026-10-11 14:18 UTCEG score recompute
  8. 2026-10-11 13:49 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  9. 2026-10-10 20:00 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  10. 2026-10-10 06:34 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-10-09 20:07 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  12. 2026-10-09 03:26 UTCEG score recompute
  13. 2026-10-08 17:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  14. 2026-10-08 01:56 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-10-07 23:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  16. 2026-10-06 16:39 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-10-06 15:18 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  18. 2026-10-05 18:55 UTCEG score recompute
  19. 2026-10-05 17:43 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  20. 2026-10-05 01:24 UTCEG score recompute
  21. 2026-10-04 23:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  22. 2026-10-03 16:09 UTCEG score recompute
  23. 2026-10-03 14:26 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  24. 2026-10-02 19:56 UTCEG score recompute
  25. 2026-10-02 17:56 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
Show 67 more
  1. 2026-10-01 19:57 UTCEG score recompute
  2. 2026-10-01 19:50 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 38th percentile
  3. 2026-09-30 19:59 UTCEG score recompute
  4. 2026-09-30 15:03 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 37th percentile
  5. 2026-09-30 06:08 UTCEG score recompute
  6. 2026-09-29 15:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 37th percentile
  7. 2026-09-29 01:40 UTCEG score recompute
  8. 2026-09-28 21:21 UTCEG score recompute
  9. 2026-09-28 13:51 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 37th percentile
  10. 2026-09-27 15:38 UTCEG score recompute
  11. 2026-09-27 13:48 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 37th percentile
  12. 2026-09-26 21:08 UTCEG score recompute
  13. 2026-09-26 15:59 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 37th percentile
  14. 2026-09-24 14:37 UTCEG score recompute
  15. 2026-09-24 14:04 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.5% · 37th percentile
  16. 2026-09-23 20:42 UTCEG score recompute
  17. 2026-09-23 17:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  18. 2026-09-22 18:46 UTCEG score recompute
  19. 2026-09-22 00:56 UTCEG score recompute
  20. 2026-09-20 22:40 UTCEG score recompute
  21. 2026-09-20 20:16 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  22. 2026-09-19 16:22 UTCEG score recompute
  23. 2026-09-18 23:04 UTCEG score recompute
  24. 2026-09-18 19:28 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 34th percentile
  25. 2026-09-17 20:58 UTCEG score recompute
  26. 2026-09-17 19:31 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  27. 2026-09-16 14:39 UTCEG score recompute
  28. 2026-09-16 14:08 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  29. 2026-09-16 06:01 UTCEG score recompute
  30. 2026-09-16 05:15 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  31. 2026-09-15 04:01 UTCEG score recompute
  32. 2026-09-15 03:11 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  33. 2026-09-13 20:22 UTCEG score recompute
  34. 2026-09-13 16:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  35. 2026-09-12 18:24 UTCEG score recompute
  36. 2026-09-11 16:28 UTCEG score recompute
  37. 2026-09-11 14:53 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  38. 2026-09-11 12:08 UTCEG score recompute
  39. 2026-09-10 10:11 UTCEG score recompute
  40. 2026-09-10 09:35 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  41. 2026-09-09 00:51 UTCEG score recompute
  42. 2026-09-08 22:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  43. 2026-09-07 19:30 UTCEG score recompute
  44. 2026-09-07 16:01 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  45. 2026-09-06 15:56 UTCEG score recompute
  46. 2026-09-06 13:47 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  47. 2026-09-05 18:19 UTCEG score recompute
  48. 2026-09-04 16:11 UTCEG score recompute
  49. 2026-09-04 07:31 UTCEG score recompute
  50. 2026-09-04 05:06 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  51. 2026-09-02 20:34 UTCEG score recompute
  52. 2026-09-02 14:12 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  53. 2026-09-01 15:05 UTCEG score recompute
  54. 2026-09-01 13:54 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  55. 2026-09-01 06:17 UTCEG score recompute
  56. 2026-09-01 04:40 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  57. 2026-08-30 19:20 UTCEG score recompute
  58. 2026-08-30 19:17 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  59. 2026-08-30 02:04 UTCEG score recompute
  60. 2026-08-30 01:22 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  61. 2026-08-28 23:58 UTCEG score recompute
  62. 2026-08-28 21:41 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  63. 2026-08-27 18:27 UTCEG score recompute
  64. 2026-08-27 14:25 UTCEPSS rescoreEPSS 0.4% · 33rd percentile
  65. 2026-08-26 15:49 UTCEG score recompute
  66. 2026-08-26 14:23 UTCEG score recomputeFirst assessed: 9.6 CRITICAL
  67. 2026-08-26 14:22 UTCMITRE cvelistV5first tracked

Related CVEs(same product + same CWE)

Frequently asked(5)

What is CVE-2026-54523?
CVE-2026-54523 is a critical-severity vulnerability; its CVE record was published on August 26, 2026. Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. From 1.18.0 until 1.18.2, the NamespacedMutatingPolicy CEL compiler exposes the generator library to matchConditions, allowing a namespace-scoped policy to invoke generator.apply(namespace, resources) with an arbitrary…
When was the CVE record for CVE-2026-54523 published?
The CVE record for CVE-2026-54523 was published on August 26, 2026. That is the record's publication date; the vulnerability itself may have been made public earlier. EchelonGraph's copy of the record carries a last-modified date of September 9, 2026; the record at its source may have been updated since.
Is CVE-2026-54523 actively exploited?
CVE-2026-54523 is not currently on CISA's Known Exploited Vulnerabilities catalog. FIRST EPSS estimates a 0.5% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days (38th percentile of EPSS-scored CVEs).
What is the CVSS score of CVE-2026-54523?
CVE-2026-54523 has a CVSS base score of 9.6 (a secondary CVSS source that NVD displays; NVD's own analysis pending).
How do I remediate CVE-2026-54523?
A fix for CVE-2026-54523 is available: update to the fixed version the vendor names in its advisory. The vendor advisories EchelonGraph has for CVE-2026-54523 are linked in the Vendor Advisories panel on this page.

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