CVE-2025-13888 is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.1) CWE-266 vulnerability in github.com/redhat-developer/gitops-operator. A fix is available for github.com/redhat-developer/gitops-operator — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Openshift-gitops-operator: openshift gitops: namespace admin cluster takeover via privileged jobs
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-2025-13888.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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
github.com/redhat-developer/gitops-operatorReal-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
A flaw was found in OpenShift GitOps. Namespace admins can create ArgoCD Custom Resources (CRs) that trick the system into granting them elevated permissions in other namespaces, including privileged namespaces. An authenticated attacker can then use these elevated permissions to create privileged workloads that run on master nodes, effectively giving them root access to the entire cluster.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/redhat-developer/gitops-operator | all versions | 1.16.2go get github.com/redhat-developer/gitops-operator@v1.16.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/redhat-developer/gitops-operator, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/redhat-developer/gitops-operator to 1.16.2 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2025-13888 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.
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.
Red Hat rates this vulnerability as Important instead of Critical. While full cluster compromise is possible, it requires the attacker to already possess authenticated namespace administrator credentials, reducing the attack surface to authorized internal users rather than external attackers.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.16 | openshift-gitops-1/gitops-rhel8-operator:1.16 | RHSA-2025:23207 |
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.17 | openshift-gitops-1/gitops-rhel8-operator:1.17 | RHSA-2025:23206 |
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.18 | openshift-gitops-1/gitops-rhel8-operator:1.18 | RHSA-2025:23203 |
| Red Hat OpenShift GitOps 1.18 | openshift-gitops-1/gitops-rhel8-operator:1768881033 | RHSA-2026:1017 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2025-13888 in your dependencies?
Find it across Go, including transitive dependencies.