CVE-2026-41184
When the configuration template uses the __SERVICEACCOUNT_TOKEN__ placeholder (Canal/Flannel-Calico deployments), the installer substitutes the live Kubernetes ServiceAccount bearer token before logging, exposing the token to any authenticated user with…
Does this matter?
Lower severity and a low EPSS score (0.50%). Track it; it rarely justifies an emergency change on its own.
Description
In Calico, the install-cni init container logs the rendered CNI configuration to standard output. When the configuration template uses the __SERVICEACCOUNT_TOKEN__ placeholder (Canal/Flannel-Calico deployments), the installer substitutes the live Kubernetes ServiceAccount bearer token before logging, exposing the token to any authenticated user with pods/log permission in the namespace with calico-node. The token holds patch privileges on pods/status, enabling annotation-based attacks against cluster workloads. The default kubeconfig-based authentication path is not affected. This is a direct regression of TTA-2018-001.
- CVSS 4.0
- 6.0 MEDIUMCVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:N/VA:N/SC:L/SI:L/SA:L/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/M
- EPSS
- 0.50% probability · 42th percentile
- CISA KEV
- Not listed
- Weakness
- CWE-532
- Affected
- tigera/calico
- Source
- psirt@tigera.io
References
- https://github.com/projectcalico/calico/pull/12502Issue Tracking, Patch
- https://github.com/projectcalico/calico/pull/12526Issue Tracking, Patch
- https://github.com/projectcalico/calico/pull/12527Issue Tracking, Patch
- https://www.tigera.io/security-bulletins/tta-2026-001/Mitigation, Vendor Advisory
Source: NVD record, EPSS from FIRST.org, KEV from CISA. Refreshed daily.