CVE-2026-42296: high-severity vulnerability in argoproj argo-workflows
Argo Workflows has incomplete fix for CVE-2026-31892: hostNetwork, securityContext, serviceAccountName bypass templateReferencing Strict/Secure
Published · Updated
21Vexday Risk Score
No sign of exploitation. No public exploitation artifact known so far.
ssvc Trackcvss 8.1epss 0.5%
exploitation probability
0.5%top 60% of all CVEs
observed exploitation
nono source reports it
Argo Workflows is an open source container-native workflow engine for orchestrating parallel jobs on Kubernetes. Prior to versions 3.7.14 and 4.0.5, a user with create Workflow permission can bypass templateReferencing: Strict to get host network access, switch service accounts, override pod security context, add tolerations to schedule on control-plane nodes, or enable SA token mounting. This defeats the stated purpose of the feature. The practical impact depends on what Kubernetes-level controls are in place. Clusters with PodSecurity admission or OPA/Gatekeeper would independently block some of these (like hostNetwork). Clusters that rely on Argo's Strict mode as the primary enforcement layer are fully exposed. This issue has been patched in versions 3.7.14 and 4.0.5.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:N
Affected products
argoproj · argo-workflowsRelated CVEs — argoproj argo-workflows
In the same product, most dangerous first.
CVE-2022-29164HIGHPrivilege Escalation in argo-workflowsEPSS 0.9%CVE-2026-28229CRITICALArgo Workflows has unauthorized access to Argo Workflows TemplateEPSS 0.8%CVE-2026-42294HIGHArgo Workflows: Unauthenticated Memory Exhaustion (DoS) in Webhook InterceptorEPSS 0.7%CVE-2025-66626HIGHargoproj/argo-workflows is vulnerable to RCE via ZipSlip and symbolic linksEPSS 0.7%CVE-2024-53862MEDIUMArgo Workflows Allows Access to Archived Workflows with Fake Token in `client` modeEPSS 0.7%CVE-2026-31892HIGHWorkflowTemplate Security Bypass via podSpecPatch in Strict/Secure Reference ModeEPSS 0.7%
References
https://access.redhat.com/security/cve/CVE-2026-42296https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=2468446https://github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/commit/534f4ff1cbd86908e8ff76d97d553ad5a49a950dhttps://github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/releases/tag/v3.7.14https://github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/releases/tag/v4.0.5https://github.com/argoproj/argo-workflows/security/advisories/GHSA-3775-99mw-8rp4https://security.access.redhat.com/data/csaf/v2/vex/2026/cve-2026-42296.json