CVE-2026-40868: kyverno apicall servicecall implicit bearer token injection leaks kyverno serviceaccount token

Severity: high (CVSS 8.1 v3.1)
Exploited in the wild: not listed in CISA KEV
EPSS: 0.3% probability of exploitation in the next 30 days
Public exploit or detection template: yes
Published: 2026-04-21 · updated 2026-06-17
Weakness: CWE-922

Description

Kyverno is a policy engine designed for cloud native platform engineering teams. Prior to 1.16.4, kyverno’s apiCall servicecall helper implicitly injects Authorization: Bearer ... using the kyverno controller serviceaccount token when a policy does not explicitly set an Authorization header. Because context.apiCall.service.url is policy-controlled, this can send the kyverno serviceaccount token to an attacker-controlled endpoint (confused deputy). Namespaced policies are blocked from servicecall usage by the namespaced urlPath gate in pkg/engine/apicall/apiCall.go, so this report is scoped to ClusterPolicy and global context usage. This vulnerability is fixed in 1.16.4.

Affected products

kyverno: before 1.16.4 — fixed in 1.16.4

How to fix

Upgrade to a fixed version: kyverno 1.16.4. Check the vendor advisory for mitigations.

References

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