CVE-2022-24877 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.9) Path Traversal vulnerability in github.com/fluxcd/kustomize-controller. A fix is available for github.com/fluxcd/kustomize-controller — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Improper path handling in kustomization files allows path traversal
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- CISA’s own triage has not observed active exploitation or public proof-of-concept code for this CVE as of its last assessment.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for CVE-2022-24877.
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-2022-24877 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
github.com/fluxcd/kustomize-controller🐹github.com/fluxcd/flux2Real-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 kustomize-controller enables the use of Kustomize’s functionality when applying Kubernetes declarative state onto a cluster. A malicious user can use built-in features and a specially crafted kustomization.yaml to expose sensitive data from the controller’s pod filesystem. In multi-tenancy deployments this can lead to privilege escalation if the controller's service account has elevated permissions.
Within the affected versions, users with write access to a Flux source are able to use built-in features to expose sensitive data from the controller’s pod filesystem using a malicious kustomization.yaml file.
This vulnerability was fixed in kustomize-controller v0.24.0 and included in flux2 v0.29.0 released on 2022-04-20. The changes introduce a new Kustomize file system implementation which ensures that all files being handled are contained within the Kustomization working directory, blocking references to any files that do not meet that requirement.
Automated tooling (e.g. conftest) could be employed as a workaround, as part of a user's CI/CD pipeline to ensure that their kustomization.yaml files conform with specific policies, blocking access to sensitive path locations.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/fluxcd/kustomize-controller | all versions | 0.24.0go get github.com/fluxcd/kustomize-controller@v0.24.0 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/fluxcd/flux2 | all versions | 0.29.0go get github.com/fluxcd/flux2@v0.29.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/fluxcd/kustomize-controller, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/fluxcd/kustomize-controller to 0.24.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-24877 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-2022-24877 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-24877. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-24877 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-24877 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.