CVE-2023-27593: cilium-agent container can access the host via `hostPath` mount

Severity: medium (CVSS 5.5 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: none known
Published: 2023-03-17 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-276

Description

Cilium is a networking, observability, and security solution with an eBPF-based dataplane. Prior to versions 1.11.15, 1.12.8, and 1.13.1, an attacker with access to a Cilium agent pod can write to `/opt/cni/bin` due to a `hostPath` mount of that directory in the agent pod. By replacing the CNI binary with their own malicious binary and waiting for the creation of a new pod on the node, the attacker can gain access to the underlying node. The issue has been fixed and the fix is available on versions 1.11.15, 1.12.8, and 1.13.1. Some workarounds are available. Kubernetes RBAC should be used to deny users and service accounts `exec` access to Cilium agent pods. In cases where a user requires `exec` access to Cilium agent pods, but should not have access to the underlying node, no workaround is possible.

Affected products

cilium: before 1.11.15; from 1.12.0 before 1.12.8; from 1.13.0 before 1.13.1 — fixed in 1.11.15, 1.12.8, 1.13.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: cilium 1.11.15, 1.12.8, 1.13.1. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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