CVE-2026-77524: Privilege Escalation (CVSS 9.9)

Description

KEDA is a Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaling component. In version 2.20.2 and earlier, a namespace administrator who can create TriggerAuthentication and ScaledObject resources can set hashiCorpVault.address to a tenant-controlled endpoint and select Kubernetes authentication without an explicit credential. KEDA then uses the operator pod's projected ServiceAccount token and sends it to that endpoint as a Vault login credential. The JWT-shape filter from the prior CVE-2025-68476 remediation accepts the operator token because its subject is a Kubernetes ServiceAccount, so the attacker can obtain the operator's cluster-wide permissions, including broad Secret reads and workload or admission-related operations. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.21.0.

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CVSS v3.1 Score

9.9

CRITICAL

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H

EPSS — Exploit Prediction

0.0064

Probability of exploitation

0.49%

Percentile rank

EPSS estimates the probability that this vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. A higher score means more likely to be exploited.

Weakness Type (CWE)

CWE-269 CWE-269

CWE-918 Server-Side Request Forgery (SSRF)

References

Other References

https://github.com/kedacore/keda/commit/1e21cc798dedd079e696cdb45388eddc5e18365d https://github.com/kedacore/keda/releases/tag/v2.21.0 https://github.com/kedacore/keda/security/advisories/GHSA-637c-6jxx-4rwm

Frequently Asked Questions

What is CVE-2026-77524? +

KEDA is a Kubernetes-based Event Driven Autoscaling component. In version 2.20.2 and earlier, a namespace administrator who can create TriggerAuthentication and ScaledObject resources can set hashiCorpVault.address to a tenant-controlled endpoint and select Kubernetes authentication without an explicit credential. KEDA then uses the operator pod's projected ServiceAccount token and sends it to that endpoint as a Vault login credential. The JWT-shape filter from the prior CVE-2025-68476 remediation accepts the operator token because its subject is a Kubernetes ServiceAccount, so the attacker can obtain the operator's cluster-wide permissions, including broad Secret reads and workload or admission-related operations. This vulnerability is fixed in 2.21.0. It has a CVSS v3.1 base score of 9.9 (CRITICAL).

How severe is CVE-2026-77524? +

CVE-2026-77524 has a CVSS v3.1 score of 9.9 out of 10, rated CRITICAL. This is a critical vulnerability that should be patched immediately. The EPSS score is 0.0064, placing it in the 0th percentile for exploitation probability.

How do I check if I'm vulnerable to CVE-2026-77524? +

You can use Secably's free Website Scanner to check your website for known vulnerabilities. For infrastructure scanning, use the Port Scanner to identify exposed services that may be affected. Check the vendor advisories linked above for specific patch and version information.

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