How severe is CVE-2022-36103?

CVE-2022-36103 has a CVSS score of 7.2/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by CVE-2022-36103?

CVE-2022-36103 affects the following packages: github.com/talos-systems/talos (Go). Ecosystems affected: Go.

How do I fix CVE-2022-36103?

Update github.com/talos-systems/talos to 1.2.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-36103 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect CVE-2022-36103 in my Go dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/talos-systems/talos, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate CVE-2022-36103 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.

Is CVE-2022-36103 actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for CVE-2022-36103 yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for CVE-2022-36103?

CVE-2022-36103 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.7%, placing it in the 53th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is CVE-2022-36103?

CVE-2022-36103 is classified as CWE-732 (CWE-732), CWE-863 (CWE-863). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was CVE-2022-36103 published, and has it been updated?

CVE-2022-36103 was published on September 13, 2022 and was last updated on October 28, 2026. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐹

🐹 Go

Not in CISA KEV

HIGH severity

CVE-2022-36103 — talos

HIGHFix: siderolabs/talos@9eaf33f

CVE-2022-36103 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.2) CWE-732 vulnerability in github.com/talos-systems/talos. A fix is available for github.com/talos-systems/talos — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Talos worker join token can be used to get elevated access level to the Talos API

Also known asGHSA-7hgc-php5-77qqGO-2022-0995

Published

Sep 13, 2022

Updated

Oct 28, 2026

Affected

1 pkg

Patched

1 / 1

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Oct 29, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

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-2022-36103.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.7%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs53th percentile — riskier than 53% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Real-World Exposure

1 pkg affected

🐹github.com/talos-systems/talos

Real-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

Impact

Talos worker nodes use a join token to get accepted into the Talos cluster. A misconfigured Kubernetes environment may allow workloads to access the join token of the worker node. A malicious workload could then use the join token to construct a Talos CSR (certificate signing request). Due to improper validation while signing a worker node CSR, a Talos control plane node might issue a Talos certificate which allows full access to the Talos API to a worker node that presented a maliciously constructed CSR. Accessing the Talos API with full access on a control plane node might reveal sensitive information, which could allow full-level access to the cluster (Kubernetes and Talos PKI, etc.)

In order to exploit the weakness, a Kubernetes workload would need to access the join token, and then construct a specific kind of Talos CSR in order to obtain a privileged certificate. The Talos API join token is stored in the machine configuration on the worker node. When configured correctly, Kubernetes workloads do not have access to the machine configuration, and thus cannot access the token, nor acquire elevated privileges.

It is possible that users have misconfigured Kubernetes in such a way as to allow a workload to access the machine configuration and reveal the join token. Misconfigurations that may allow the machine configuration to be accessed on a worker node by the Kubernetes workload are:

allowing a hostPath mount to mount the machine config directly from the host filesystem (hostPath mounts should not be allowed for untrusted workloads, and are disabled by default in recent versions of Talos.)
reading machine configuration from a cloud metadata server from Kubernetes pods with host networking (on cloud platforms, when machine config is stored in the cloud metadata server, and the cloud metadata server doesn't provide enough protection to prevent access from non-host workloads)

Patches

The problem was fixed in Talos 1.2.2.

Workarounds

Enabling the Pod Security Standards mitigates the vulnerability by denying hostPath mounts and host networking by default in the baseline policy. Talos enables Pod Security Admission plugin by default since Talos v1.1.0.

Clusters that don't run untrusted workloads are not affected. Clusters with correct Pod Security configurations which don't allow hostPath mounts, and secure access to cloud metadata server (or machine configuration is not supplied via cloud metadata server) are not affected.

References

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Email us at [email protected]

Affected Packages

1 total 1 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐹Go	`github.com/talos-systems/talos`	all versions	1.2.2`go get github.com/talos-systems/talos@v1.2.2`

Affected Products

1 product · 1 configurations

talos linuxsiderolabs

< 1.2.2

range

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/talos-systems/talos, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/talos-systems/talos to 1.2.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-36103 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Put an independent control in front of the weakness: restrict the affected endpoint or interface to trusted networks, require an additional authentication factor or proxy-level check, and invalidate existing sessions and credentials in case the flaw has already been used.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact Talos worker nodes use a join token to get accepted into the Talos cluster. A misconfigured Kubernetes environment may allow workloads to access the join token of the worker node. A malicious workload could then use the join token to construct a Talos CSR (certificate signing request). Due to improper validation while signing a worker node CSR, a Talos control plane node might issue a Talos certificate which allows full access to the Talos API to a worker node that presented a maliciously constructed CSR. Accessing the Talos API with full access on a control plane node might reveal