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Full vulnerability report · 2026
CVE-2026-70496High confidence

Search-v2-operator: search-v2-operator: operator clusterrole is cluster-admin equivalent via impersonate, rbac write, csr approve, and manifestwork

Red Hat · Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.11

Official source article: Red Hat RHSA-2026:60386 ↗. Check the applicable product and release in the original source.

9.9CriticalCVSS 3.1
Recommended action
Within 7 days

Critical technical severity; prioritise exposed affected systems while verifying vendor guidance.

Patch available
R
Operational reassessment

Published severity in operational context

Open reassessment dashboard →
Published severityCriticalOperational priority:Critical, unchanged from published severity.unchanged

Evidence used

  • No CISA KEV confirmation is currently recorded.
  • EPSS is 0.55% for the current model date.

Compensating controls

  • Validate the affected product branch and deploy the verified fixed release.
  • Restrict the affected network interface to trusted sources where business-safe.
  • Monitor vendor guidance and exploitation sources for a material change.

Verification

  1. Confirm that the asset runs Red Hat Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.11 and falls inside the recorded affected range.
  2. Verify the installed build against the product-specific fixed version after deployment.
  3. Validate exposure, authentication requirements and compensating controls in the actual environment.
  4. Reopen this reassessment when CVSS, KEV, EPSS, exploit evidence or remediation changes.
Mitigation target: Within 3 daysRemediation target: Within 90 days

This automated reassessment organises public evidence. It does not know asset exposure, business impact or control effectiveness and does not replace CVSS or a human risk decision.

Direct vendor intelligence

Authoritative vendor CSAF and VEX advisories

Structured product status and remediation from the issuing vendor. Product-state explanations are always visible; large lists can be searched or downloaded.

1 current
CVE-2026-70496 · CSAF 2.0 · revision 3 · finalRed Hat Product Securitysearch-v2-operator: search-v2-operator: operator ClusterRole is cluster-admin equivalent via impersonate, RBAC write, CSR approve, and ManifestWork
28 fixed

The vendor explicitly identifies these products or versions as containing the fix.

  • registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:5f75a9df1ebbed9a0b064e8b5d11e11a575f78f0399446247d1f25354b586e0e_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.11
  • registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:64265433a04cc943af0e803ff7cf4046aa4df9ffc651bcd7c47bff1a7f2f14c4_ppc64le as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.11
  • registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:dc35b67df27d81e63e581983435a3760e37a92ec6444ea8ce5213112e8e89436_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.11
  • registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:e900f4b03876615ad1646f9f52edb074aebf87e8a28b9e3d142553648375cd53_s390x as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.11
  • registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:2935dbd7bbdc4d7db451711fda1836f62809a3f159db6b00e54f5f10a1554d50_s390x as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.13
  • registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:299125e5c0e93da2437ef76137241456a4bc49975b3632d5530eb1fe05aa05cd_ppc64le as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.13
  • registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:39bd74ee66fb076f9764558ca3460ea52fb8e70e03458d84fbfeda0a475b05d8_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.13
  • registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:5dacf5991f0dfcee4e079d9ac1040cca19478832e6da1f1436b828135dc99816_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.13
  • registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:1a590fe3f8310c5fdc445eb6717205ad4f877481888d4480a404b682b1bd60f4_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.14
  • registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:6ab15503dbd02ddae2b9d7d0c971883b90275c9bbf690743397a5208d3d9dc8b_ppc64le as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.14
  • registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:70d184e01143ed3e47e52d9807a44d35c4c650f7482120051f0ee784d3794cb6_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.14
  • registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:d794a2cf0bf6bf9ea22c31df75bd5381997d825b0ebde525b83f54fb9f3174d3_s390x as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.14
Summary
A flaw was found in search-v2-operator. The operator's ClusterRole has permissions equivalent to a cluster administrator, allowing it to impersonate other entities, write Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) configurations, approve Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs), and manage ManifestWork. This grants excessive privileges beyond what is necessary for the operator's intended function, potentially leading to privilege escalation within the cluster.
Remediation
Before you apply this update, make sure all previously released errata that are relevant to your system are applied. For details on how to apply this update, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258
Optional official sources

National CERT insights
?CERT means Computer Emergency Response Team; CSIRT is the closely related term Computer Security Incident Response Team.

Choose official national sources for this report. Each advisory shows its original language. Your selection is remembered on this device and included in shared links.

Official European source

ENISA European Vulnerability Database

Official EUVD identifiers, advisory evidence and known-exploited context. Missing fields are not treated as evidence of low risk.

1 current
ENISA EUVD identifier

EUVD-2026-62678

No EUVD known-exploited evidence

A flaw was found in search-v2-operator. The operator's ClusterRole has permissions equivalent to a cluster administrator, allowing it to impersonate other entities, write Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) configurations, approve Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs), and manage ManifestWork. This grants excessive privileges beyond what is necessary for the operator's intended function, potentially leading to privilege escalation within the cluster.

EUVD state
Present in the current official mapping
Known exploitation
Not present in the current ENISA EUVD known-exploited dataset. This is not proof of no exploitation.
ENISA score
9.9 · CVSS 3.1
Advisory evidence
No linked advisory details stored yet
Recommended actionWithin 7 days

Critical technical severity; prioritise exposed affected systems while verifying vendor guidance.

Patch available
01

What, why and how

A flaw was found in search-v2-operator. The operator's ClusterRole has permissions equivalent to a cluster administrator, allowing it to impersonate other entities, write Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) configurations, approve Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs), and manage ManifestWork. This grants excessive privileges beyond what is necessary for the operator's intended function, potentially leading to privilege escalation within the cluster.

What

A flaw was found in search-v2-operator. The operator's ClusterRole has permissions equivalent to a cluster administrator, allowing it to impersonate other entities, write Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) configurations, approve Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs), and manage ManifestWork. This grants excessive privileges beyond what is necessary for the operator's intended function, potentially leading to privilege escalation within the cluster.

Why

The product performs an operation at a privilege level that is higher than the minimum level required, which creates new weaknesses or amplifies the consequences of other weaknesses.

How

An attacker operating through a network path may attempt exploitation with low privileges. If successful, the issue may gain additional privileges.

What

A flaw was found in search-v2-operator. The operator's ClusterRole has permissions equivalent to a cluster administrator, allowing it to impersonate other entities, write Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) configurations, approve Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs), and manage ManifestWork. This grants excessive privileges beyond what is necessary for the operator's intended function, potentially leading to privilege escalation within the cluster.

Why

The product performs an operation at a privilege level that is higher than the minimum level required, which creates new weaknesses or amplifies the consequences of other weaknesses.

How

An attacker operating through a network path may attempt exploitation with low privileges. If successful, the issue may gain additional privileges.

02

Exploit reality and attack path

CVSS severity, EPSS forecast probability, public exploit material and CISA-confirmed exploitation are separate signals.

Observed exploitation
?Confirmed exploitation and public exploit material are separate signals. Attacks can occur without public proof-of-concept or exploit code.
No confirmed evidence

No CISA KEV match was present at the last successful refresh. This means no confirmation from that source, not proof of no exploitation.

Public PoC / exploit material
?Confirmed exploitation and public exploit material are separate signals. Attacks can occur without public proof-of-concept or exploit code.
None recorded

No exploit-tagged reference or CISA SSVC proof-of-concept state is currently recorded. Research may still exist outside the structured feeds.

Likely attack path
a network path → Execution with Unnecessary Privileges → gain additional privileges
Attack surface
Network
Privileges required
Low: a basic authenticated account is required
User interaction
None
Attack complexity
Low: no specialised conditions are recorded
Security boundary
Changed: exploitation can affect a different security authority
Weakness
?CWE means Common Weakness Enumeration: a standard category for the underlying weakness.
CWE-250 ↗

CWE-250: Execution with Unnecessary Privileges. The product performs an operation at a privilege level that is higher than the minimum level required, which creates new weaknesses or amplifies the consequences of other weaknesses.

CVSS vector
?CVSS means Common Vulnerability Scoring System. The vector records the metric values used to calculate technical severity.
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

Common Vulnerability Scoring System 3.1: the compact vector below is decoded into plain language.

AVNetworkAttack vector: The vulnerable component can be reached over a network.ACLowAttack complexity: No specialised conditions are required beyond attacker-controlled input.PRLowPrivileges required: The attacker needs basic user-level privileges.UINoneUser interaction: No action by another user is required.SChangedScope: The attack can affect a component governed by a different security authority.CHighConfidentiality impact: A successful attack can cause a major loss.IHighIntegrity impact: A successful attack can cause a major loss.AHighAvailability impact: A successful attack can cause a major loss.
Post-exploitation / living off the land
No specific living-off-the-land technique is confirmed in the structured sources. Monitor normal administration tools for activity inconsistent with the affected service's baseline.
NetworkPrivilege escalationCWE-250
A

Official authority intelligence

Only matched European and national findings are included. Language selectors and unavailable sources are omitted.

ENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-62678Official EUVD mapping

A flaw was found in search-v2-operator. The operator's ClusterRole has permissions equivalent to a cluster administrator, allowing it to impersonate other entities, write Role-Based Access Control (RBAC) configurations, approve Certificate Signing Requests (CSRs), and manage ManifestWork. This grants excessive privileges beyond what is necessary for the operator's intended function, potentially leading to privilege escalation within the cluster.

Official EUVD record ↗
Cyber Security Agency of Singapore · English · CSA-SB-20260826Security Bulletin 26 Aug 2026

The Cyber Security Agency of Singapore included this CVE in its official Security Bulletin 26 Aug 2026, published on 26 August 2026. Open the linked bulletin for the product, severity and reference information published in that issue.

Official advisory ↗
03

Patch and workaround

Operational remediation based on structured source evidence.

Status
?Patch availability is based on structured fixed-version fields and authoritative update references. If no fix is verified, check the vendor advisory before making a change.
Patch available
Affected
Fixed
Action
Before you apply this update, make sure all previously released errata that are relevant to your system are applied. For details on how to apply this update, refer to: https://access.redhat.com/articles/11258
Workaround
No verified workaround is recorded. If business-safe, reduce exposure to the affected interface and allow only trusted sources until authoritative guidance is available.
04

Evidence and provenance

Published 19 Aug 2026 · Last source change 5 Sept 2026, 14:24 UTC · CWE-250 · Execution with Unnecessary Privileges

CVE recordCVE.org · 5.2
CVSS sourceCNA
EPSS source
?The date BlackTree first stored a score for this CVE from the daily FIRST EPSS feed.
FIRST · tracked since 2026-08-23
European sourceENISA EUVD · EUVD-2026-62678
Product sourceCNA
Remediation sourceVendor CSAF · Red Hat Product Security
CWE sourceCNA
NVD statusNVD awaiting enrichment

Missing structured fields: affected versions. Missing data is not evidence of low risk; review the primary advisory.

Material change intelligence

What changed after publication

View recent updates ↗
  1. Affected versionsThe structured affected or fixed version information changed.
    Before
    See the vendor and CVE records for the affected range. · Fixed: 1787688827 < *; 1787682112 < *; 1787682033 < *; 1787681674 < *; 1787681686 < *; 1787681651 < *; 1787229539 < *
    After
    See the vendor and CVE records for the affected range. · Fixed: Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.11: 1787688827 < *; Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.13: 1787682112 < *; Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.14: 1787682033 < *; Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.15: 1787681674 < *; Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.16: 1787681686 < *; Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.17: 1787681651 < *, 1787229539 < *
    CNA ↗
  2. Affected versionsThe structured affected or fixed version information changed.
    Before
    See the vendor and CVE records for the affected range. · Fixed: 1787682112 < *; 1787681674 < *; 1787681651 < *; 1787229539 < *
    After
    See the vendor and CVE records for the affected range. · Fixed: 1787688827 < *; 1787682112 < *; 1787682033 < *; 1787681674 < *; 1787681686 < *; 1787681651 < *; 1787229539 < *
    CNA ↗
  3. Vendor guidanceAuthoritative vendor guidance changed from remediation: access.redhat.com/CVE-2026-70496 to remediation: access.redhat.com/CVE-2026-70496.
    Before
    remediation: access.redhat.com/CVE-2026-70496
    After
    remediation: access.redhat.com/CVE-2026-70496
    Red Hat Product Security ↗
  4. Remediation statusRemediation status changed from Mitigation available to Patch available.
    Before
    Mitigation available
    After
    Patch available
    Red Hat Product Security ↗
  5. Affected versionsThe structured affected or fixed version information changed.
    Before
    rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2; rhacm2/search-collector-rhel9 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2
    After
    Fixed: registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:5f75a9df1ebbed9a0b064e8b5d11e11a575f78f0399446247d1f25354b586e0e_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.11; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:64265433a04cc943af0e803ff7cf4046aa4df9ffc651bcd7c47bff1a7f2f14c4_ppc64le as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.11; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:dc35b67df27d81e63e581983435a3760e37a92ec6444ea8ce5213112e8e89436_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.11; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:e900f4b03876615ad1646f9f52edb074aebf87e8a28b9e3d142553648375cd53_s390x as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.11; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:2935dbd7bbdc4d7db451711fda1836f62809a3f159db6b00e54f5f10a1554d50_s390x as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.13; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:299125e5c0e93da2437ef76137241456a4bc49975b3632d5530eb1fe05aa05cd_ppc64le as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.13; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:39bd74ee66fb076f9764558ca3460ea52fb8e70e03458d84fbfeda0a475b05d8_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.13; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:5dacf5991f0dfcee4e079d9ac1040cca19478832e6da1f1436b828135dc99816_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.13; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:1a590fe3f8310c5fdc445eb6717205ad4f877481888d4480a404b682b1bd60f4_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.14; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:6ab15503dbd02ddae2b9d7d0c971883b90275c9bbf690743397a5208d3d9dc8b_ppc64le as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.14; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:70d184e01143ed3e47e52d9807a44d35c4c650f7482120051f0ee784d3794cb6_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.14; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:d794a2cf0bf6bf9ea22c31df75bd5381997d825b0ebde525b83f54fb9f3174d3_s390x as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.14; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:3ad89395d7a38074701c6524cd69393f6e87fe2851d4a1c9574dbe784aa306f3_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.15; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:929e9984b54f31d3bb78e229676a56e584a7c4c3d2c116f0beee8296a893081d_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.15; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:b5277e183a6cf638bbfd513bb2ddf446053e2f6d46a42187fc795a23bde5a36d_ppc64le as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.15; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:dfc4fd7752f336647346f0c6f6ae63e9a5ce19eccd0d52e86827ccb973dfa2fb_s390x as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.15; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:140266027f9a59f6838291abdc9c3f7f39d82df64954048f6b0f6c9ece3fdaea_ppc64le as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.16; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:5fe30eeacfdd03e364e5ca49863629b4ffb1673f75229248b0bc791c7546f6e8_s390x as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.16; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:a81ed691ca3734c02753d4a579c8ee887f7b292d3d725a673814bc4a014b21af_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.16; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:f79c1d8671c171c532c3c5f404546b55fb6e30a50282b92e342c9c2e807182a1_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.16; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:18c00db684e67b2d85ceceaf6c6535926b4c448e6c865f0770cd5b3f2ed52578_ppc64le as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.17; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:31d4e26e5647479d4945d64c3bbca1abe00726d044e5c1808f086224d44a4b9a_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.17; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:bc68b964cbf327a5e6da09abf250201febd361042dc1964f0e4c0e9608194534_s390x as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.17; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/acm-search-v2-rhel9@sha256:e19b686f6a2044595507eab1731c0a8e56f1d43c421b9ad478f3188ade7f7a1f_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.17; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/search-collector-rhel9@sha256:4649c2a50109ea2f8a9b4f4343c071f572d3703e0877531664c04388feda323d_arm64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.17; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/search-collector-rhel9@sha256:76e19a88f86c990d7a80507fc504fc497af9a4e3e9622f5eff6e42389e15234a_amd64 as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.17; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/search-collector-rhel9@sha256:9f9c43e1f8e8d82c9372d4672f15938949b8d414a08521e478a8772055b49521_ppc64le as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.17; registry.redhat.io/rhacm2/search-collector-rhel9@sha256:e518fba8f3c41954e0f59b7a2579198179b5c22c7012ade133eef34ef93d02c5_s390x as a component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management for Kubernetes 2.17
    Red Hat Product Security ↗
  6. Vendor guidanceAuthoritative vendor guidance changed: added remediation: access.redhat.com/RHSA-2026:60386.
    Before
    no authoritative guidance recorded
    After
    remediation: access.redhat.com/RHSA-2026:60386
    CNA ↗
  7. Affected versionsThe structured affected or fixed version information changed.
    Before
    See the vendor and CVE records for the affected range. · Fixed: No fixed version is explicitly recorded in the structured CVE data.
    After
    See the vendor and CVE records for the affected range. · Fixed: 1787682112 < *; 1787681674 < *; 1787681651 < *; 1787229539 < *
    CNA ↗
  8. Remediation statusRemediation status changed from Awaiting fix to Patch available.
    Before
    Awaiting fix
    After
    Patch available
    CNA ↗
  9. Catalogue recordCVE added to the BlackTree catalogue.
    CNA ↗
Material fields only · duplicate refreshes suppressed · history retained for the configured operational retention period
Technical terms and abbreviations used in this report
CVE
Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures: the public identifier for one disclosed vulnerability.
CVSS
Common Vulnerability Scoring System: a technical severity framework; it is not patching priority by itself.
EPSS
Exploit Prediction Scoring System: FIRST's estimate of the probability that exploitation activity will be observed in the next 30 days; it is a forecast, not confirmation.
CWE
Common Weakness Enumeration: the standard category describing the underlying software or hardware weakness.
CNA
CVE Numbering Authority: an organisation authorised to assign and publish CVE records.
CISA ADP
Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Authorized Data Publisher: structured enrichment added to a CVE record.
NVD
National Vulnerability Database: NIST's enrichment service for CVE records.
CERT / CSIRT
A computer security incident response team that publishes warnings or coordinates incident response.
PoC
Proof of concept: public material that demonstrates or helps reproduce exploitation.
CSAF
Common Security Advisory Framework: a machine-readable format for security advisories.
LoTL
Living off the land: abuse of legitimate tools or system functions during an attack.
Free version - for non-commercial use only.CVE-2026-70496 · cve.blacktree.nl