CVE-2026-22822criticalCWE-863

CVE-2026-22822: critical vulnerability in external-secrets

External Secrets Operator insecurely retrieves secrets through the getSecretKey templating function

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28Vexday Risk Score

No sign of exploitation. No public exploitation artifact known so far.

ssvc Trackcvss 9.3epss 0.2%
External Secrets Operator reads information from a third-party service and automatically injects the values as Kubernetes Secrets. Starting in version 0.20.2 and prior to version 1.2.0, the `getSecretKey` template function, while introduced for senhasegura Devops Secrets Management (DSM) provider, has the ability to fetch secrets cross-namespaces with the roleBinding of the external-secrets controller, bypassing our security mechanisms. This function was completely removed in version 1.2.0, as everything done with that templating function can be done in a different way while respecting External Secrets Operator's safeguards As a workaround, use a policy engine such as Kubernetes, Kyverno, Kubewarden, or OPA to prevent the usage of `getSecretKey` in any ExternalSecret resource.
CVSS:4.0/AV:L/AC:L/AT:N/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H
Affected products
external-secrets · external-secrets
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