CVE-2022-29165 — v2
CRITICALCVE-2022-29165 is a critical-severity (CVSS 10) Information Exposure vulnerability in github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2. A fix is available for github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Argo CD will blindly trust JWT claims if anonymous access is enabled
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- 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-2022-29165.
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-2022-29165 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 377,333 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/argoproj/argo-cd/v2🐹github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2🐹github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2🐹github.com/argoproj/argo-cdReal-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
Argo CD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. A critical vulnerability has been discovered in Argo CD starting with version 1.4.0 and prior to versions 2.1.15, 2.2.9, and 2.3.4 which would allow unauthenticated users to impersonate as any Argo CD user or role, including the admin user, by sending a specifically crafted JSON Web Token (JWT) along with the request. In order for this vulnerability to be exploited, anonymous access to the Argo CD instance must have been enabled. In a default Argo CD installation, anonymous access is disabled. The vulnerability can be exploited to impersonate as any user or role, including the built-in admin account regardless of whether it is enabled or disabled. Also, the attacker does not need an account on the Argo CD instance in order to exploit this. If anonymous access to the instance is enabled, an attacker can escalate their privileges, effectively allowing them to gain the same privileges on the cluster as the Argo CD instance, which is cluster admin in a default installation. This will allow the attacker to create, manipulate and delete any resource on the cluster. They may also exfiltrate data by deploying malicious workloads with elevated privileges, thus bypassing any redaction of sensitive data otherwise enforced by the Argo CD API. A patch for this vulnerability has been released in Argo CD versions 2.3.4, 2.2.9, and 2.1.15. As a workaround, one may disable anonymous access, but upgrading to a patched version is preferable.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2 | ≥ 2.3.0&&< 2.3.4 | 2.3.4go get github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2@v2.3.4 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2 | ≥ 2.2.0&&< 2.2.9 | 2.2.9go get github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2@v2.2.9 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2 | all versions | 2.1.15go get github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2@v2.1.15 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/argoproj/argo-cd | all versions | 2.1.15go get github.com/argoproj/argo-cd@v2.1.15 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2 to 2.3.4 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-29165 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-2022-29165 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-29165. 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.
The anonymous mode is by default disabled in the ArgoCD instance installed by the Red Hat GitOps operator.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.3 | openshift-gitops-1/applicationset-rhel8:v1.3.10-1 | RHSA-2022:4671 |
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.3 | openshift-gitops-1/applicationset-rhel8:v1.3.9-3 | RHSA-2022:4691 |
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.4 | openshift-gitops-1/applicationset-rhel8:v1.4.7-2 | RHSA-2022:4692 |
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.5 | openshift-gitops-1/applicationset-rhel8:v1.5.1-4 | RHSA-2022:4690 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2022-29165 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-29165 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.