GHSA-c534-2w9c-x7fm is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) vulnerability in github.com/zxh326/kite. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-c534-2w9c-x7fm is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Kite Kubernetes proxy path traversal allows authenticated users to bypass RBAC and read cluster-wide resources
Real-World Exposure
github.com/zxh326/kiteReal-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
Kite versions 0.6.9 through 0.14.0 authorize Kubernetes proxy requests against the pod or service identified by the original route parameters. Encoded path traversal segments can cause the upstream URL to resolve to a different Kubernetes API endpoint after authorization.
Impact
An authenticated user with get permission on pods or services in one namespace can cause Kite to issue GET requests to Kubernetes API endpoints outside that namespace using Kite's service account.
With Kite's default Helm RBAC configuration, this allows cluster-wide resource disclosure, including Secrets. The validated impact is confidentiality only; resource modification and denial of service were not demonstrated.
Deployments using a restricted Kite service account are affected only up to the permissions granted to that service account.
Technical details
The authorization check is performed against the original namespace and kind route parameters. The proxy path is subsequently decoded and passed to url.JoinPath, which resolves .. segments and can produce an upstream URL outside the authorized pod or service proxy prefix.
Two input locations were affected:
- Encoded traversal segments in the proxy catch-all path.
- Encoded traversal and slash characters in the resource name.
Reproduction
- Create a user with a role granting only
pods:getin namespacedefault. - Create any pod in
default(e.g.nginx). - Send the following request (auth cookie required):
curl --path-as-is --cookie "auth_token=<JWT>" \
'http://<kite-host>/api/v1/_clusters/<cluster>/namespaces/default/pods/nginx/proxy/%2e%2e/%2e%2e/%2e%2e/%2e%2e/kube-system/secrets'
Patches
Fixed in Kite 0.14.1.
Workarounds
Upgrade to 0.14.1 or later.
If upgrading is temporarily impossible, reject encoded dot segments and encoded slashes at the reverse proxy and restrict Kite's Kubernetes service account permissions. Reverse-proxy normalization should not be treated as a permanent fix.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/zxh326/kite | ≥ 0.6.9&&< 0.14.1 | 0.14.1 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/zxh326/kite. O3's reachability analysis confirms whether the vulnerable code path is actually invoked in your application, so you act on real exposure instead of every transitive match.
Fix
Update github.com/zxh326/kite to 0.14.1 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-c534-2w9c-x7fm 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 pinpoints whether GHSA-c534-2w9c-x7fm is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.
Tailored to GHSA-c534-2w9c-x7fm. 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-c534-2w9c-x7fm in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-c534-2w9c-x7fm across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.