GHSA-f9f8-9pmf-xv68 is a medium-severity (CVSS 6.5) CWE-908 vulnerability in helm.sh/helm/v3. A fix is available for helm.sh/helm/v3 — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Helm May Panic Due To Incorrect YAML Content
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- 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 GHSA-f9f8-9pmf-xv68.
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.
How urgent is this, really
GHSA-f9f8-9pmf-xv68 plotted by exploitation likelihood (EPSS) against impact (CVSS). The shaded corner — EPSS 50%+ and CVSS 7.0+ — is where this CVE doesn't sit, though severity or exploitability alone can still warrant action.
Where this sits among everything scored
Of 379,145 CVEs with a current EPSS score, this one falls in the < 10% band (highlighted). Real counts from FIRST.org, not a sample — log-scaled since the landscape is heavily right-skewed.
Real-World Exposure
helm.sh/helm/v3Real-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
A Helm contributor discovered an improper validation of type error when parsing Chart.yaml and index.yaml files that can lead to a panic.
Impact
There are two areas of YAML validation that were impacted. First, when a Chart.yaml file had a null maintainer or the child or parent of a dependencies import-values could be parsed as something other than a string, helm lint would panic. Second, when an index.yaml had an empty entry in the list of chart versions Helm would panic on interactions with that repository.
Patches
This issue has been resolved in Helm v3.18.5.
Workarounds
Ensure YAML files are formatted as Helm expects prior to processing them with Helm.
References
Helm's security policy is spelled out in detail in our SECURITY document.
Credits
Disclosed by Jakub Ciolek at AlphaSense.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | helm.sh/helm/v3 | all versions | 3.18.5go get helm.sh/helm/v3@v3.18.5 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for helm.sh/helm/v3, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
Fix
Update helm.sh/helm/v3 to 3.18.5 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-f9f8-9pmf-xv68 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-f9f8-9pmf-xv68 can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
Tailored to GHSA-f9f8-9pmf-xv68. Runtime protection reduces exposure until a permanent patch is applied and verified — it complements patching, it doesn't replace it.
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.
| Product | Fixed in | Advisory |
|---|---|---|
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.20 | openshift4/ose-console-rhel9:openshift-enterprise-console-container-v4.20.0-202511250912.p2.ga7d3608.assembly.stream.el9 | RHSA-2025:22257 |
| Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.21 | openshift4/ose-console-rhel9:1770188884 | RHSA-2026:2129 |
Frequently Asked Questions
Is GHSA-f9f8-9pmf-xv68 in your dependencies?
O3 Security finds GHSA-f9f8-9pmf-xv68 across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.