How severe is GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p?

GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p has a CVSS score of 4.9/10, rated MEDIUM. Review your exposure and patch according to your risk tolerance.

Which packages are affected by GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p?

GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p affects the following packages: github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator (Go), github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator (Go), github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator (Go). Ecosystems affected: Go.

How do I fix GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p?

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.

How do I detect GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p in my Go dependencies?

Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.

How do I mitigate GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p if there is no patch (or I can't update yet)?

Assume what was exposed is already known: rotate any credential, token or key that the affected component could return, restrict the endpoint to callers that genuinely need it, and strip sensitive fields from responses and error output at the boundary rather than relying on the client not to read them.

Is GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p actively exploited in the wild?

No public exploit code has been indexed for GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p yet. This does not mean the vulnerability cannot be exploited — absence of public exploits does not imply safety. Apply the recommended fix and use O3 Security to monitor your exposure.

What is the EPSS score for GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p?

GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p has an EPSS (Exploit Prediction Scoring System) score of 0.6%, placing it in the 48th 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-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p?

GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p is classified as Information Exposure (CWE-200), CWE-653 (CWE-653). These weakness types describe the underlying flaw category, which helps determine the potential impact and the right class of mitigation.

When was GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p published, and has it been updated?

GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p was published on September 3, 2024 and was last updated on December 20, 2024. Advisory data evolves as severity scores, affected ranges, and exploit intelligence are revised — always check the latest version of the advisory before acting.

🐹

🐹 Go

Not in CISA KEV

MEDIUM severity

The Bare Metal Operator (BMO) can expose particularly named secrets from other namespaces via BMH CRDGHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p

MEDIUMFix: metal3-io/baremetal-operator#1929

GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p is a medium-severity (CVSS 4.9) Information Exposure vulnerability in github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator. A fix is available for github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator — see the affected versions and patch details below.

Also known asCVE-2024-43803GO-2024-3109

Published

Sep 3, 2024

Updated

Dec 20, 2024

Affected

3 pkgs

Patched

3 / 3

Exploits

None indexed

Exploitation data as of Nov 10, 2026 · OSV.dev, NVD, FIRST.org (EPSS)

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-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p.

EPSS Exploitation Probability

via FIRST.org ↗

0.6%probability of exploitation in next 30 days

Lower Risk0.00%

Lower risk than most CVEs48th percentile — riskier than 48% of all scored CVEsHighest risk

Probability of exploitation in the next 30 days, from FIRST.org EPSS.

How urgent is this, really

Where this sits among everything scored

Real-World Exposure

3 pkgs affected

🐹github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator🐹github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator🐹github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator

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

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

3 total 3 fixed

Ecosystem	Package	Vulnerable range	Fix
🐹Go	`github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator`	≥ 0.7.0-rc.0&&< 0.8.0	0.8.0`go get github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator@v0.8.0`
🐹Go	`github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator`	≥ 0.6.0&&< 0.6.2	0.6.2`go get github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator@v0.6.2`
🐹Go	`github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator`	all versions	0.5.2`go get github.com/metal3-io/baremetal-operator@v0.5.2`

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/metal3-io/baremetal-operator, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
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
Assume what was exposed is already known: rotate any credential, token or key that the affected component could return, restrict the endpoint to callers that genuinely need it, and strip sensitive fields from responses and error output at the boundary rather than relying on the client not to read them.

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.

Red HatModerate

This issue is considered moderate rather than important because it requires specific conditions to be exploited. The vulnerability relies on an attacker already having the ability to create or modify a BareMetalHost resource, which typically requires elevated permissions. Furthermore, the flaw only allows exfiltration…

Workaround published by Red Hat

The Operator can configure BMO RBAC to be the namespace scoped for Secrets, instead of the cluster scoped to prevent BMO from accessing Secrets from other namespaces.

Source: Red Hat security advisory for GHSA-pqfh-xh7w-7h3p (CC BY 4.0)

Product	Fixed in	Advisory
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.16	`openshift4/ose-baremetal-rhel9-operator:v4.16.0-202409121637.p0.gae55a70.assembly.stream.el9`	RHSA-2024:6824
Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform 4.18	`openshift4/aws-kms-encryption-provider-rhel9:v4.18.0-202501230001.p0.g088dcaf.assembly.stream.el9`	RHSA-2024:6122

Frequently Asked Questions

### 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 ne