Description
The Kubernetes kube-apiserver in versions v1.6-v1.15, and versions prior to v1.16.13, v1.17.9 and v1.18.6 are vulnerable to an unvalidated redirect on proxied upgrade requests that could allow an attacker to escalate privileges from a node compromise to a full cluster compromise.
Affected products
| Vendor | Product | Affected | Fixed |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kubernetes | Kubernetes | 1.6, 1.7, 1.8, 1.9, 1.10, 1.11, 1.12, 1.13, 1.14, 1.15, 1.16 – ≤ 1.16.12, 1.17 – ≤ 1.17.8, 1.18 – ≤ 1.18.5 | — |
Fixed in Linux distributions
Distributions backport fixes, so the version that fixes this vulnerability differs per release — upgrade to at least the version shown. From the distributions' security trackers and advisories.
Debian
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Debian 14 | kubernetes | 1.18.5-1 | — |
| Debian 13 | kubernetes | 1.18.5-1 | — |
| Debian 12 | kubernetes | 1.18.5-1 | — |
Red Hat
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift 4 | ignition +1 | 2.6.0-5.rhaos4.6.git947598e.el8 | RHBA-2020:4197 |
| Red Hat OpenShift 4 | openshift +1 | 4.4.0-202012052258.p0.git.0.0fd57a4.el7 | RHSA-2021:0030, RHBA-2020:4197 |
| Red Hat OpenShift 3 | atomic-openshift +12 | 3.11.346-1.git.0.ea10721.el7 | RHSA-2020:5363 |
Alpine
Security tracker ↗| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine v3.24 | k3s | 1.18.6.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.23 | k3s | 1.18.6.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.22 | k3s | 1.18.6.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.21 | k3s | 1.18.6.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.20 | k3s | 1.18.6.1-r0 | — |
Show 7 more (older releases, extended support, other products)Fewer releases
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Alpine v3.19 | k3s | 1.18.6.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.18 | k3s | 1.18.6.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.17 | k3s | 1.18.6.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.16 | k3s | 1.18.6.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.15 | k3s | 1.18.6.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.14 | k3s | 1.18.6.1-r0 | — |
| Alpine v3.13 | k3s | 1.18.6.1-r0 | — |
Oracle Linux
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Oracle Linux 7 | istio +10 | 1.4.10-1.0.1.el7 | ELSA-2020-5765 |
| Oracle Linux 7 | kata | 1.7.3-1.0.7.el7 | ELSA-2020-5766, ELSA-2020-5765 |
| Oracle Linux 7 | kata-image | 1.7.3-1.0.5.1.ol7_202007011859 | ELSA-2020-5766, ELSA-2020-5765 |
| Oracle Linux 7 | kata-runtime | 1.7.3-1.0.5.el7 | ELSA-2020-5766, ELSA-2020-5765 |
| Oracle Linux 7 | kernel-uek-container | 4.14.35-1902.303.5.3.el7 | ELSA-2020-5766, ELSA-2020-5765 |
| Oracle Linux 7 | kubeadm +2 | 1.12.10-1.0.13.el7 | ELSA-2020-5767, ELSA-2020-5766, ELSA-2020-5765 |
| Oracle Linux 7 | olcne-istio-chart +1 | 1.1.2-6.el7 | ELSA-2020-5765 |
| Oracle Linux 7 | olcnectl +4 | 1.0.5-3.el7 | ELSA-2020-5766, ELSA-2020-5765 |
Wolfi
| Release | Package | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|---|
| Wolfi rolling | cert-exporter | 2.14.0-r9 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | cilium-cli | 0.18.2-r2 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | eksctl | 0.205.0-r4 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | falcoctl | 0.7.3-r8 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | ghaudit | 0.4.0-r1 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | glab | 1.54.0-r0 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | helm-operator +1 | 1.39.2-r0 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | hubble +1 | 1.17.1-r2 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | kine | 0.13.11-r0 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | kots +2 | 1.124.8-r0 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | kubeflow-pipelines-apiserver | 2.14.3-r3 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | kubernetes-dashboard | 7.11.1-r1 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | kubernetes-dashboard-metrics-scraper +1 | 1.2.2-r5 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | kubernetes-dns-node-cache | 1.25.0-r5 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | kubevela +3 | 1.10.2-r4 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | kubewatch | 2.9.0-r7 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | kwok +1 | 0.6.1-r7 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | kyverno-policy-reporter +1 | 3.0.7-r1 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | local-path-provisioner | 0.0.31-r3 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | local-static-provisioner +3 | 2.7.0-r15 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | melange | 0.23.0-r1 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | newrelic-infra-operator | 0.21.6-r3 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | newrelic-nri-kube-events | 2.11.8-r1 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | newrelic-nri-statsd | 2.11.0-r0 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | nodetaint | 0.0.4-r30 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | nri-discovery-kubernetes +1 | 1.11.0-r0 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | nri-kubernetes | 3.35.0-r0 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | opentelemetry-collector-contrib +1 | 0.122.0-r1 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | postgres-operator +1 | 1.14.0-r5 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | prometheus-adapter | 0.12.0-r10 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | pulumi-kubernetes-operator | 1.16.0-r13 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | rabbitmq-cluster-operator +2 | 2.12.1-r3 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | rabbitmq-messaging-topology-operator +2 | 1.16.0-r4 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | secrets-store-csi-driver-provider-aws | 0.3.11-r32 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | secrets-store-csi-driver-provider-azure | 1.6.2-r32 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | skaffold | 2.14.2-r0 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | slsa-verifier | 2.7.0-r3 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | sonobuoy +1 | 0.57.3-r2 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | spark-operator +1 | 2.1.0-r8 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | spire-agent +2 | 1.11.2-r5 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | src | 6.1.0-r3 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | stakater-reloader +1 | 1.3.0-r2 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | step-issuer +1 | 0.9.8-r0 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | stern | 1.32.0-r3 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | tekton-chains | 0.24.0-r5 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | terraform +2 | 1.5.7-r25 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | thanos-operator-compat | 0.3.7-r26 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | tkn | 0.40.0-r4 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | trust-manager | 0.16.0-r2 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | up +1 | No fix yet | — |
| Wolfi rolling | vault-k8s | 1.6.2-r1 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | velero-plugin-for-csi +1 | 0.7.1-r32 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | volume-modifier-for-k8s | 0.5.1-r4 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | zarf | 0.50.0-r0 | — |
| Wolfi rolling | zot | 2.1.2-r7 | — |
Public exploits
Exploit or proof-of-concept code for this vulnerability is publicly available, which lowers the bar for attackers. Treat it as a reason to patch sooner.
Third-party code, not reviewed by us. Public PoCs are sometimes fake or contain malware. Read the code first and run it only in an isolated lab, against systems you are authorised to test.
GitHub 2 repositories
-
tdwyer/CVE-2020-8559 ★ 53 · Jul 22, 2020
This is a PoC exploit for CVE-2020-8559 Kubernetes Vulnerability
-
tabbysable/POC-2020-8559 ★ 20 · Jul 22, 2020
Proof of Concept exploit for Kubernetes CVE-2020-8559
Sources: PoC-in-GitHub, Metasploit Framework, Exploit-DB — updated daily. Only links are listed; no exploit code is hosted here.
Affected packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Affected | Fixed | Record |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Go | k8s.io/apimachinery | < 0.16.13 | 0.16.13 | GHSA-33c5-9fx5-fvjm |
| Go | k8s.io/apimachinery | >= 0.17.0, < 0.17.9 | 0.17.9 | GHSA-33c5-9fx5-fvjm |
| Go | k8s.io/apimachinery | >= 0.18.0, < 0.18.7 | 0.18.7 | GHSA-33c5-9fx5-fvjm |
| Go | k8s.io/apimachinery | < 0.16.13 · >= 0.17.0, < 0.17.9 · >= 0.18.0, < 0.18.7-rc.0 | 0.16.13, 0.17.9, 0.18.7-rc.0 | GO-2024-2748 |
| Go | k8s.io/kubernetes | < 1.16.13 | 1.16.13 | GHSA-33c5-9fx5-fvjm |
| Go | k8s.io/kubernetes | >= 1.17.0, < 1.17.9 | 1.17.9 | GHSA-33c5-9fx5-fvjm |
| Go | k8s.io/kubernetes | >= 1.18.0, < 1.18.7 | 1.18.7 | GHSA-33c5-9fx5-fvjm |
| Go | k8s.io/kubernetes | < 1.16.13 · >= 1.17.0, < 1.17.9 · >= 1.18.0, < 1.18.7 | 1.16.13, 1.17.9, 1.18.7 | GO-2024-2748 |
Advisories 7
- RHBA-2020:4197 Red Hat Bug Fix Advisory: OpenShift Container Platform 4.6 GA RPMs Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Jun 29, 2026
- WID-SEC-2022-0510 IBM DB2: Mehrere Schwachstellen BSI CERT-Bund (WID) · May 18, 2026
- RHSA-2021:0030 Red Hat Security Advisory: OpenShift Container Platform 4.4.32 packages and security update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Feb 24, 2026
- RHSA-2020:5363 Red Hat Security Advisory: OpenShift Container Platform 3.11.346 security and bug fix update Red Hat Security Advisories (RHSA) · Feb 24, 2026
- ELSA-2020-5765 Important: Unbreakable Enterprise kernel-container kata-image kata-runtime kata kubernetes kubernetes istio olcne security update (Oracle Linux 7) Oracle Linux Security Advisories (ELSA) · Jul 22, 2020
- ELSA-2020-5766 Important: Unbreakable Enterprise kernel-container kata-image kata-runtime kata kubernetes olcne security update (Oracle Linux 7) Oracle Linux Security Advisories (ELSA) · Jul 22, 2020
- ELSA-2020-5767 Important: kubernetes security update (Oracle Linux 7) Oracle Linux Security Advisories (ELSA) · Jul 22, 2020