kube-apiserver: Nodes can delete themselves by adding an OwnerReference
CVE: CVE-2025-5187
Component: kubernetes
CWE: CWE-306
Severity: Moderate
CVSS v3: 7.7/AV:N/AC:L/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:L
Release date: 2025-08-12T16:00:00+00:00

A vulnerability was found in the kube-apiserver's NodeRestriction admission controller, where node users can delete their corresponding node object by setting their own OwnerReference to a cluster-scoped resource. This flaw allows an attacker to delete and recreate its node object, leading to the node being recreated with modified taints or labels, which should not be allowed in this context. This may let the attacker control which pods are running on the compromised node.

Statement: This vulnerability is rated as having a Moderate severity. For a successful attack to take place, the attacker needs to have a high privileged account with enough privileges to create the nodes.

Remediation:
For OpenShift Container Platform 4.18 see the following documentation, which will be updated shortly for this release, for important instructions on how to upgrade your cluster and fully apply this asynchronous errata update:
https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/openshift_container_platform/4.18/html/release_notes/
You can download the oc tool and use it to inspect release image metadata for x86_64, s390x, ppc64le, and aarch64 architectures. The image digests can be found at https://quay.io/repository/openshift-release-dev/ocp-release?tab=tags.
The sha values for the release are as follows:
(For x86_64 architecture) The image digest is sha256:2db093f063ad5310fa4e5ed2d2eda4bad5215c47092b72d1cfafbcfdbf1f4dd2
(For s390x architecture) The image digest is sha256:578636cf6c118e3f27e73e2d44895dd5dd619c50b8f1f3a32e08b1df628f9dcb
(For ppc64le architecture) The image digest is sha256:6d3380150dd6b9fe1044503a96bf42199b271e7758466649c4b6fb08ff25c559
(For aarch64 architecture) The image digest is sha256:63d620c118a8bfb4b9d4344715a648327dcdcbd5d66488ae8c0f25cf63d98671
All OpenShift Container Platform 4.18 users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages and images when they are available in the appropriate release channel. To check for available updates, use the OpenShift CLI (oc) or web console. Instructions for upgrading a cluster are available at https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/openshift_container_platform/4.18/html-single/updating_clusters/index#updating-cluster-cli.
For OpenShift Container Platform 4.19 see the following documentation, which will be updated shortly for this release, for important instructions on how to upgrade your cluster and fully apply this asynchronous errata update:
https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/openshift_container_platform/4.19/html/release_notes/
You can download the oc tool and use it to inspect release image metadata for x86_64, s390x, ppc64le, and aarch64 architectures. The image digests can be found at https://quay.io/repository/openshift-release-dev/ocp-release?tab=tags.
The sha values for the release are as follows:
(For x86_64 architecture) The image digest is sha256:f0ca7c0e9ede6440119f3fd90abdd87e77cf99b7e68d6c1f95ec1872c62cbb17
(For s390x architecture) The image digest is sha256:d6f8ece6352f890e927d9deb4255bbfb67760965b9c94e60b875080ed028da6f
(For ppc64le architecture) The image digest is sha256:4dfd2f864c890aa8af14d032bfdf076c818f92dd9853f802d41b65706541b61a
(For aarch64 architecture) The image digest is sha256:849353b2beb257c1cfd66079647e0426e4662c514606acd013273ac40f3a92f7
All OpenShift Container Platform 4.19 users are advised to upgrade to these updated packages and images when they are available in the appropriate release channel. To check for available updates, use the OpenShift CLI (oc) or web console. Instructions for upgrading a cluster are available at https://docs.redhat.com/en/documentation/openshift_container_platform/4.19/html-single/updating_clusters/index#updating-cluster-cli.
This vulnerability can be mitigated by enabling the OwnerReferencesPermissionEnforcement admission controller, which will prevent any user without delete permissions on an object from modifying the OwnerReferences on that object.

Note that this admission controller will apply to all users and object types.