CVE-2018-20321
Any project member with access to the default namespace can mount the netes-default service account in a pod, and then use that pod to execute administrative privileged commands against the k8s cluster.
Does this matter?
High impact if exploited, but EPSS currently rates exploitation as unlikely (1.77%). Schedule it in the normal patch cycle and watch for a rise in EPSS or a public exploit.
Description
An issue was discovered in Rancher 2 through 2.1.5. Any project member with access to the default namespace can mount the netes-default service account in a pod, and then use that pod to execute administrative privileged commands against the k8s cluster. This could be mitigated by isolating the default namespace in a separate project, where only cluster admins can be given permissions to access. As of 2018-12-20, this bug affected ALL clusters created or imported by Rancher.
- CVSS 3.0
- 8.8 HIGHCVSS:3.0/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H
- EPSS
- 1.77% probability · 78th percentile
- Public exploits
- None in Exploit-DB
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-668
- Affected
- suse/rancher
- Source
- cve@mitre.org
EPSS 1.8% since 27 October 2026; no change recorded yet. Points are recorded when the score first appears and whenever it moves by a percentage point or more.
References
- https://forums.rancher.com/c/announcementsVendor Advisory
- https://rancher.com/blog/2019/2019-01-29-explaining-security-vulnerabilities-addressed-in-rancher-v2-1-6-and-v2-0-11/Mitigation, Vendor Advisory
- https://forums.rancher.com/c/announcementsVendor Advisory
- https://rancher.com/blog/2019/2019-01-29-explaining-security-vulnerabilities-addressed-in-rancher-v2-1-6-and-v2-0-11/Mitigation, Vendor Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA, exploits from Exploit-DB. Refreshed daily. Download this record as JSON.