What’s Vulnerable › Vulnerabilities

CVE-2023-3676: Kubernetes - Windows nodes - Insufficient input sanitization leads to privilege escalation

• Severity: high (CVSS 8.8 v3.1)
• Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
• EPSS: 13.2% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
• Public exploit or detection template: yes
• Published: 2023-10-31 · updated 2026-06-17
• Weakness: CWE-20

Description

A security issue was discovered in Kubernetes where a user that can create pods on Windows nodes may be able to escalate to admin privileges on those nodes. Kubernetes clusters are only affected if they include Windows nodes.

Affected products

• Kubernetes: before 1.24.17; from 1.25.0 before 1.25.13; from 1.26.0 before 1.26.8; from 1.27.0 before 1.27.5; from 1.28.0 before 1.28.1 — fixed in 1.24.17, 1.25.13, 1.26.8, 1.27.5, 1.28.1

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: Kubernetes 1.24.17, 1.25.13, 1.26.8, 1.27.5. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

• https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/119339
• https://groups.google.com/g/kubernetes-security-announce/c/d_fvHZ9a5zc
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20231130-0007/
• https://github.com/kubernetes/kubernetes/issues/119339
• https://groups.google.com/g/kubernetes-security-announce/c/d_fvHZ9a5zc
• https://security.netapp.com/advisory/ntap-20231130-0007/

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