How severe is GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522?

GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 has a CVSS score of 8.8/10, rated HIGH. Immediate patching is strongly recommended.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522?

GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 affects the following packages: github.com/rancher/rancher (Go), github.com/rancher/rancher (Go), github.com/rancher/rancher (Go). Ecosystems affected: Go.

How do I fix GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522?

Update github.com/rancher/rancher to 2.5.17 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 is resolved across your whole dependency graph.

How do I detect GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 in my Go dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/rancher/rancher. 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.

How do I mitigate GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

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 does O3 Security protect against GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522?

O3 pinpoints whether GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 is reachable in your code and exactly where to fix it, then blocks exploitation in production at runtime until the patched version is deployed.

Is GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 actively exploited in the wild?

Yes. There are 1 known exploit references for GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522, including 1 in-the-wild exploitation observed on GitHub and other sources. Treat this as actively exploitable and prioritize patching immediately. All exploit code should only be run in an isolated sandbox environment for research or authorized testing — never against production systems without explicit written authorization.

What is the EPSS score for GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522?

GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.6%, placing it in the 42th percentile of all CVEs. EPSS is maintained by FIRST.org and estimates the probability that a vulnerability will be exploited in the wild within the next 30 days. This score indicates relatively lower exploitation probability, though the CVSS severity should still guide your patching priority.

What type of vulnerability is GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522?

GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 is classified as CWE-312 (CWE-312). This weakness type describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 was published on January 25, 2023 and was last updated on November 8, 2023. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐹 Go

GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522

HIGH

Plaintext storage of sensitive data in Rancher API and cluster.management.cattle.io objects

Also known asCVE-2022-43757

Published

Jan 25, 2023

Updated

Nov 8, 2023

Affected

3 pkgs

Patched

3 / 3

Exploits

1 known

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk42th percentile+0.33%

EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) is a daily probability model maintained by FIRST.org. It estimates the likelihood a CVE will be exploited in production environments within the next 30 days, derived from real-world threat intelligence signals.

Blast Radius

3 pkgs affected

🐹github.com/rancher/rancher🐹github.com/rancher/rancher🐹github.com/rancher/rancher

Real-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

Impact

This issue affects Rancher versions from 2.5.0 up to and including 2.5.16, from 2.6.0 up to and including 2.6.9 and 2.7.0. It was discovered that the security advisory CVE-2021-36782 (GHSA-g7j7-h4q8-8w2f), previously released by Rancher, missed addressing some sensitive fields, secret tokens, encryption keys, and SSH keys that were still being stored in plaintext directly on Kubernetes objects like Clusters.

The exposed credentials are visible in Rancher to authenticated Cluster Owners, Cluster Members, Project Owners and Project Members of that cluster on the endpoints:

/v1/management.cattle.io.cluster
/v1/management.cattle.io.clustertemplaterevisions

The remaining sensitive fields are now stripped from Clusters and other objects and moved to a Secret before the object is stored. The Secret is retrieved when the credential is needed. For objects that existed before this security fix, a one-time migration happens on startup.

The fields that have been addressed by this security fix are:

Cluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.KubeAPI.SecretsEncryptionConfig.CustomConfig.Providers[].AESGCM.Keys[].Secret
Cluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.KubeAPI.SecretsEncryptionConfig.CustomConfig.Providers[].AESCBC.Keys[].Secret
Cluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.KubeAPI.SecretsEncryptionConfig.CustomConfig.Providers[].SecretboxConfiguration.Keys[].Secret
Cluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Services.Kubelet.ExtraEnv when containing the AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY environment variable
Cluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.BastionHost.SSHKey
Cluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.PrivateRegistries[].ECRCredentialPlugin.AwsSecretAccessKey
Cluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.PrivateRegistries[].ECRCredentialPlugin.AwsSessionToken
Cluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Network.AciNetworkProvider.ApicUserKey
Cluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Network.AciNetworkProvider.KafkaClientKey
Cluster.Spec.RancherKubernetesEngineConfig.Network.AciNetworkProvider.Token

Important:

For the exposure of credentials not related to Rancher, the final impact severity for confidentiality, integrity and availability is dependent on the permissions the leaked credentials have on their services.
It is recommended to review for potentially leaked credentials in this scenario and to change them if deemed necessary.

Workarounds

There is no direct mitigation besides updating Rancher to a patched version.

Patches

Patched versions include releases 2.5.17, 2.6.10, 2.7.1 and later versions.

After upgrading to a patched version, it is important to check for the ACISecretsMigrated and RKESecretsMigrated conditions on Clusters and ClusterTemplateRevisions to confirm when secrets have been fully migrated off of those objects, and the objects scoped within them.

For more information

If you have any questions or comments about this advisory:

Reach out to SUSE Rancher Security team for security related inquiries.
Open an issue in Rancher repository.
Verify our support matrix and product support lifecycle.

Affected Packages

3 total 3 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐹Go	`github.com/rancher/rancher`	≥ 2.5.0&&< 2.5.17	2.5.17
🐹Go	`github.com/rancher/rancher`	≥ 2.6.0&&< 2.6.10	2.6.10
🐹Go	`github.com/rancher/rancher`	≥ 2.7.0&&< 2.7.1	2.7.1

Exploits & PoCs

Research use only. For defensive security, authorized penetration testing, and academic research only. Never execute exploit code against systems without explicit written authorization.

A Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information vulnerability in SUSE Ranch…

bugzilla.suse.comNVDFeb 2023

Detection & mitigation playbook

Open-source dependency

Detect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/rancher/rancher. 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/rancher/rancher to 2.5.17 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 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-cq4p-vp5q-4522 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-cq4p-vp5q-4522. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.

Frequently Asked Questions

### Impact This issue affects Rancher versions from 2.5.0 up to and including 2.5.16, from 2.6.0 up to and including 2.6.9 and 2.7.0. It was discovered that the security advisory CVE-2021-36782 (GHSA-g7j7-h4q8-8w2f), previously released by Rancher, missed addressing some sensitive fields, secret tokens, encryption keys, and SSH keys that were still being stored in plaintext directly on Kubernetes objects like `Clusters`. The exposed credentials are visible in Rancher to authenticated `Cluster Owners`, `Cluster Members`, `Project Owners` and `Project Members` of that cluster on the endpoints:

O3 Security · Impact-Aware SCA

Is GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 in your dependencies?

O3 detects GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.

Scan my dependencies How O3 SCA works

GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522

EPSS Exploitation Probability

Blast Radius

Description

Impact

Workarounds

Patches

For more information

Affected Packages

Detection & mitigation playbook

Detect

Fix

Workarounds

How O3 protects you

Frequently Asked Questions

Is GHSA-cq4p-vp5q-4522 in your dependencies?