CVE-2026-40923 — pipeline
MEDIUMCVE-2026-40923 is a medium-severity (CVSS 5.4) Path Traversal vulnerability in github.com/tektoncd/pipeline. A fix is available for github.com/tektoncd/pipeline — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Tekton Pipelines: VolumeMount path restriction bypass via missing filepath.Clean in /tekton/ check
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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-2026-40923.
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/tektoncd/pipeline🐹github.com/tektoncd/pipeline🐹github.com/tektoncd/pipeline🐹github.com/tektoncd/pipeline🐹github.com/tektoncd/pipelineReal-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
Summary
A validation bypass in the VolumeMount path restriction allows mounting
volumes under restricted /tekton/ internal paths by using .. path
traversal components. The restriction check uses strings.HasPrefix
without filepath.Clean, so a path like /tekton/home/../results
passes validation but resolves to /tekton/results at runtime.
Details
Tekton Pipelines restricts VolumeMount paths under /tekton/ (except
/tekton/home) to prevent users from interfering with internal
execution state. The validation at
pkg/apis/pipeline/v1/container_validation.go checks mount paths using
strings.HasPrefix without normalizing the path first:
if strings.HasPrefix(vm.MountPath, "/tekton/") &&
!strings.HasPrefix(vm.MountPath, "/tekton/home") {
// reject
}
Because /tekton/home is an allowed prefix, a path like
/tekton/home/../results passes both checks. At runtime, the container
runtime resolves .. and the actual mount point becomes
/tekton/results.
The same pattern exists in pkg/apis/pipeline/v1beta1/task_validation.go.
Impact
An authenticated user with Task or TaskRun creation permissions can mount volumes over internal Tekton paths, potentially:
- Writing fake task results that downstream pipelines trust
- Reading or modifying step scripts before execution
- Interfering with entrypoint coordination state
Patches
(to be filled: fixed in versions X.Y.Z)
Workarounds
- Use admission controllers (OPA/Gatekeeper, Kyverno) to validate that
VolumeMount paths do not contain
..components. - In multi-tenant setups, restrict who can create Task and TaskRun resources via RBAC.
Affected Versions
All versions through v1.10.0 (both v1 and v1beta1 APIs).
Acknowledgments
This vulnerability was reported by @kodareef5.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/tektoncd/pipeline | ≥ 1.10.0&&< 1.11.1 | 1.11.1go get github.com/tektoncd/pipeline@v1.11.1 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/tektoncd/pipeline | ≥ 1.7.0&&< 1.9.3 | 1.9.3go get github.com/tektoncd/pipeline@v1.9.3 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/tektoncd/pipeline | ≥ 1.4.0&&< 1.6.2 | 1.6.2go get github.com/tektoncd/pipeline@v1.6.2 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/tektoncd/pipeline | ≥ 1.2.0&&< 1.3.4 | 1.3.4go get github.com/tektoncd/pipeline@v1.3.4 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/tektoncd/pipeline | ≥ 1.0.0&&< 1.0.2 | 1.0.2go get github.com/tektoncd/pipeline@v1.0.2 |
Affected Products
tekton pipelineslinuxfoundationDetection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/tektoncd/pipeline, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update github.com/tektoncd/pipeline to 1.11.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-40923 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Resolve every user-supplied path to its canonical form and reject anything that escapes the intended directory, and run the component under an account that has no read or write access outside the directory it legitimately serves.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-40923 in your dependencies?
Find it across Go, including transitive dependencies.