GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p
MEDIUMThe Bare Metal Operator (BMO) can expose particularly named secrets from other namespaces via BMH CRD
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.
Blast Radius
github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator🐹github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator🐹github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operatorReal-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
The Bare Metal Operator (BMO) implements a Kubernetes API for managing bare metal hosts in Metal3. The BareMetalHost (BMH) CRD allows the userData, metaData, and networkData for the provisioned host to be specified as links to Kubernetes Secrets. There are fields for both the Name and Namespace of the Secret, meaning that the baremetal-operator will read a Secret from any namespace. A user with access to create or edit a BareMetalHost can thus exfiltrate a Secret from another namespace by using it as e.g. the userData for provisioning some host (note that this need not be a real host, it could be a VM somewhere).
Limiting factors
BMO will only read a key with the name value (or userData, metaData, or networkData), so that limits the exposure somewhat. value is probably a pretty common key though. Secrets used by other BareMetalHosts in different namespaces are always vulnerable.
It is probably relatively unusual for anyone other than cluster administrators to have RBAC access to create/edit a BareMetalHost. This vulnerability is only meaningful, if the cluster has users other than administrators and users' privileges are limited to their respective namespaces.
Patches
The patch prevents BMO from accepting links to Secrets from other namespaces as BMH input. Any BMH configuration is only read from the same namespace only.
The problem is patched in BMO releases v0.8.0, v0.6.2 and v0.5.2 and users should upgrade to those versions. Prior upgrading and if needed, duplicate the BMC Secrets to the namespace where the corresponding BMH is. After upgrade, remove the old Secrets.
Workarounds
Operator can configure BMO RBAC to be namespace scoped for Secrets, instead of cluster scoped, to prevent BMO from accessing Secrets from other namespaces.
References
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator | ≥ 0.7.0-rc.0&&< 0.8.0 | 0.8.0 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator | ≥ 0.6.0&&< 0.6.2 | 0.6.2 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator | all versions | 0.5.2 |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator. 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/metal3-io/baremetal-operator to 0.8.0 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p 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-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p 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-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p. 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-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.