CVE-2019-11250 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-532 vulnerability in k8s.io/client-go. A fix is available for k8s.io/client-go — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Kubernetes client-go library logs may disclose credentials to unauthorized users
EPSS Exploitation Probability
EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2019-11250 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 378,156 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
k8s.io/client-go🐹k8s.io/kubernetesReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Go packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
The Kubernetes client-go library logs request headers at verbosity levels of 7 or higher. This can disclose credentials to unauthorized users via logs or command output. Kubernetes components (such as kube-apiserver) prior to v1.16.0, which make use of basic or bearer token authentication, and run at high verbosity levels, are affected.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | k8s.io/client-go | all versions | 0.17.0go get k8s.io/client-go@v0.17.0 |
| 🐹Go | k8s.io/kubernetes | all versions | 1.16.0-beta.1go get k8s.io/kubernetes@v1.16.0-beta.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for k8s.io/client-go, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update k8s.io/client-go to 0.17.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2019-11250 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
If you can't upgrade right away: gate or disable the affected feature, validate untrusted input at the boundary, and avoid passing attacker-controlled data into the vulnerable path. O3's runtime protection blocks exploitation in production as an interim safeguard until the upgrade lands.
How O3 protects you
O3 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like CVE-2019-11250 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2019-11250. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Fixing This On Your OS
If you run this on a Linux distribution, patch through your package manager against the distro's own security advisory below — it tracks the exact backported fix for your release, which can ship on a different timeline (and sometimes a different severity) than the upstream project.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 3.11 | atomic-openshift-0:3.11.157-1.git.0.dfe38da.el7 | RHSA-2019:4052 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.1 | openshift-0:4.1.27-201912021146.git.0.a40116f.el8_0 | RHSA-2019:4087 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2019-11250 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2019-11250 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.