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OpenAdvisories
High · 7.5 CVE-2026-32241 EUVD-2026-16771GHSA-vchx-5pr6-ffx2GO-2026-4894

Flannel vulnerable to cross-node remote code execution via extension backend BackendData injection

Published Mar 27, 2026 · Updated Mar 31, 2026 · Assigned by GitHub_M

Description

Flannel is a network fabric for containers, designed for Kubernetes. The Flannel project includes an experimental Extension backend that allows users to easily prototype new backend types. In versions of Flannel prior to 0.28.2, this Extension backend is vulnerable to a command injection that allows an attacker who can set Kubernetes Node annotations to achieve root-level arbitrary command execution on every flannel node in the cluster. The Extension backend's SubnetAddCommand and SubnetRemoveCommand receive attacker-controlled data via stdin (from the `flannel.alpha.coreos.com/backend-data` Node annotation). The content of this annotation is unmarshalled and piped directly to a shell command without checks. Kubernetes clusters using Flannel with the Extension backend are affected by this vulnerability. Other backends such as vxlan and wireguard are unaffected. The vulnerability is fixed in version v0.28.2. As a workaround, use Flannel with another backend such as vxlan or wireguard.

Affected products

VendorProductAffectedFixed
flannel-io flannel < 0.28.2 —

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.

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
openSUSE Tumbleweed flannel 0.28.10-1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:12270-1
openSUSE Leap 16.0 govulncheck-vulndb 0.0.20260723T184607-160000.1.1 openSUSE-SU-2026:21483-1
openSUSE Leap 15.6 govulncheck-vulndb 0.0.20260402T184258-150000.1.158.1 SUSE-SU-2026:1205-1

Azure Linux

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Azure Linux 3 flannel 0.24.2-26 —

Wolfi

ReleasePackageFixed inAdvisory
Wolfi rolling k3s +1 1.35.2.1-r5 —
Wolfi rolling k3s-1.32 +1 1.32.13.1-r8 —

Affected packages

EcosystemPackageAffectedFixedRecord
Go github.com/flannel-io/flannel < 0.28.2 0.28.2 GHSA-vchx-5pr6-ffx2

Advisories 3

References