CVE-2023-47630 — kyverno
HIGHCVE-2023-47630 is a high-severity (CVSS 7.1) CWE-345 vulnerability in github.com/kyverno/kyverno. 1 public exploit reference exists, so weaponization risk is real. A fix is available for github.com/kyverno/kyverno — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Attacker can cause Kyverno user to unintentionally consume insecure image
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-2023-47630.
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-2023-47630 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/kyverno/kyvernoReal-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
An issue was found in Kyverno that allowed an attacker to control the digest of images used by Kyverno users. The issue would require the attacker to compromise the registry that the Kyverno fetch their images from. The attacker could then return a vulnerable image to the the user and leverage that to further escalate their position. As such, the attacker would need to know which images the Kyverno user consumes and know of one of multiple exploitable vulnerabilities in previous digests of the images. Alternatively, if the attacker has compromised the registry, they could craft a malicious image with a different digest with intentionally placed vulnerabilities and deliver the image to the user.
An attacker was not be able to control other parameters of the image than the digest by exploiting this vulnerability.
Users pulling their images from trusted registries are not impacted by this vulnerability. There is no evidence of this being exploited in the wild.
The issue has been patched in 1.11.0.
The vulnerability was found during an ongoing security audit of Kyverno conducted by Ada Logics, facilitated by OSTIF and funded by the CNCF.
Members of the community have raised concerns over the similarity between this vulnerability and the one identified with CVE-2023-46737; They are two different issues with two different root causes and different levels of impact. Some differences are:
- The current advisory (GHSA-3hfq-cx9j-923w) has its root cause in Kyverno whereas the root cause of CVE-2023-46737 is in Cosigns code base.
- The impact of the current advisory (GHSA-3hfq-cx9j-923w) is that an attacker can trick Kyverno into consuming a different image than the one the user requested; The impact of CVE-2023-46737 is an endless data attack resulting in a denial-of-service.
- The fix of the current advisory (GHSA-3hfq-cx9j-923w) does not result in users being secure from CVE-2023-46737 and vice versa.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/kyverno/kyverno | all versions | 1.10.5go get github.com/kyverno/kyverno@v1.10.5 |
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/kyverno/kyverno, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/kyverno/kyverno to 1.10.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2023-47630 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-2023-47630 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to CVE-2023-47630. 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-2023-47630 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds CVE-2023-47630 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.