CVE-2022-43757 — rancher
CRITICALCVE-2022-43757 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.9) CWE-312 vulnerability in github.com/rancher/rancher. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for github.com/rancher/rancher — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Rancher: Exposure of sensitive fields
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-2022-43757.
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-2022-43757 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 378,567 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/rancher/rancher🐹github.com/rancher/rancher🐹github.com/rancher/rancherReal-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
This issue affects Rancher versions from 2.5.0 up to and including 2.5.16, from 2.6.0 up to and including 2.6.9 and 2.7.0. It was discovered that the security advisory CVE-2021-36782 (GHSA-g7j7-h4q8-8w2f), previously released by Rancher, missed addressing some sensitive fields, secret tokens, encryption keys, and SSH keys that were still being stored in plaintext directly on Kubernetes objects like Clusters.
The exposed credentials are visible in Rancher to authenticated Cluster Owners, Cluster Members, Project Owners and Project Members of that cluster on the endpoints:
/v1/management.cattle.io.cluster/v1/management.cattle.io.clustertemplaterevisions
The remaining sensitive fields are now stripped from Clusters and other objects and moved to a Secret before the object is stored. The Secret is retrieved when the credential is needed. For objects that existed before this security fix, a one-time migration happens on startup.
The fields that have been addressed by this security fix are:
Cluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.KubeAPI.SecretsEncryptionConfig.CustomConfig.Providers[].AESGCM.Keys[].SecretCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.KubeAPI.SecretsEncryptionConfig.CustomConfig.Providers[].AESCBC.Keys[].SecretCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.KubeAPI.SecretsEncryptionConfig.CustomConfig.Providers[].SecretboxConfiguration.Keys[].SecretCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.Kubelet.ExtraEnvwhen containing theAWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEYenvironment variableCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.BastionHost.SSHKeyCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.PrivateRegistries[].ECRCredentialPlugin.AwsSecretAccessKeyCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.PrivateRegistries[].ECRCredentialPlugin.AwsSessionTokenCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Network.AciNetworkProvider.ApicUserKeyCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Network.AciNetworkProvider.KafkaClientKeyCluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Network.AciNetworkProvider.Token
Important:
-
For the exposure of credentials not related to Rancher, the final impact severity for confidentiality, integrity and availability is dependent on the permissions the leaked credentials have on their services.
-
It is recommended to review for potentially leaked credentials in this scenario and to change them if deemed necessary.
Workarounds
There is no direct mitigation besides updating Rancher to a patched version.
Patches
Patched versions include releases 2.5.17, 2.6.10, 2.7.1 and later versions.
After upgrading to a patched version, it is important to check for the ACISecretsMigrated and RKESecretsMigrated conditions on Clusters and ClusterTemplateRevisions to confirm when secrets have been fully migrated off of those objects, and the objects scoped within them.
For more information
If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:
- Reach out to SUSE Rancher Security team for security related inquiries.
- Open an issue in Rancher repository.
- Verify our support matrix and product support lifecycle.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/rancher/rancher | ≥ 2.5.0&&< 2.5.17 | 2.5.17go get github.com/rancher/rancher@v2.5.17 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/rancher/rancher | ≥ 2.6.0&&< 2.6.10 | 2.6.10go get github.com/rancher/rancher@v2.6.10 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/rancher/rancher | ≥ 2.7.0&&< 2.7.1 | 2.7.1go get github.com/rancher/rancher@v2.7.1 |
Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/rancher/rancher, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/rancher/rancher to 2.5.17 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2022-43757 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-2022-43757 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2022-43757. 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-2022-43757 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2022-43757 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.