CVE-2026-55225 is a high-severity (CVSS 8) Improper Privilege Management vulnerability in io.strimzi:strimzi. A fix is available for io.strimzi:strimzi — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Strimzi: Cross-namespace privilege escalation via `Kafka.spec.entityOperator`
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-2026-55225.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.
How urgent is this, really
CVE-2026-55225 by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). Outside the shaded patch-first corner.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 395,249 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Counts from FIRST.org, log-scaled.
Real-World Exposure
io.strimzi:strimziReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects Maven packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Impact
Having the Topic and User operators to watch different namespaces than the one where the Kafka cluster is deployed, is a fully documented feature.
When the watchedNamespace field is used within the Topic or User operator (as part of the Kafka.spec.entityOperator field), the Cluster Operator creates a Role granting full CRUD on Secrets into the specified namespace. It also creates a RoleBinding to bind such Role to the entity operator ServiceAccount within the namespace where the Kafka cluster runs.
An attacker can craft a Kafka custom resource (in an attacker's namespace) with the watchedNamespace field set to a target namespace and then they can mint a token for the ServiceAccount (in the attacker's namespace) to read/write Secrets in that target. This is valid with any target namespace for which the Cluster Operator has the rights (regardless the value of the STRIMZI_NAMESPACE environment variable). The at-risk target namespaces are the namespaces which the user has given permissions to the Cluster Operator for, by creating related RoleBinding(s).
Patches
The issue is fixed in Strimzi 1.0.1 and 1.1.0 by adding a control to enable the watched namespace feature through a dedicated environment variable within the Cluster Operator deployment. The watched namespaces feature is disabled by default.
Workarounds
A possible workaround for this issue is about using a policy agent like Kyverno or OPA to prevent the usage of the watchedNamespace at configuration level within the Kafka custom resource.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| ☕Maven | io.strimzi:strimzi | all versions | 1.0.1io.strimzi:strimzi:1.0.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for io.strimzi:strimzi, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update io.strimzi:strimzi to 1.0.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms CVE-2026-55225 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.
Workarounds
Close the privilege gap rather than the entry point: audit which accounts, roles and service identities can reach the affected operation, drop the component to the least privilege it actually needs, and review file and directory permissions created by earlier installs — a default left in place is what makes this reachable.
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.
For users who cannot upgrade immediately, deploy a Kubernetes admission policy agent (such as Kyverno or OPA Gatekeeper) to block or restrict the use of the `watchedNamespace` field in Kafka custom resources (`Kafka.spec.entityOperator.userOperator.watchedNamespace` and `Kafka.spec.entityOperator.topicOperator.watchedNamespace`). Additionally, audit existing Kafka custom resources for unexpected `watchedNamespace` configurations and review RoleBindings in sensitive namespaces.Source: Red Hat security advisory for CVE-2026-55225 (CC BY 4.0)
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Streams for Apache Kafka 3.2.1 | cluster-operator | RHSA-2026:54435 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is CVE-2026-55225 in your dependencies?
Find it across Maven, including transitive dependencies.