GHSA-xwgg-m7fx-83wx
CRITICALGHSA-xwgg-m7fx-83wx is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.9) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in github.com/gardener/external-dns-management. O3 Security confirms whether GHSA-xwgg-m7fx-83wx is actually reachable in your code before you act, and blocks exploitation at runtime until you patch.
Gardener External DNS Management allows malicious google credential in DNS secret to lead to privilege escalation
Blast Radius
github.com/gardener/external-dns-management🐹github.com/gardener/gardener-extension-shoot-dns-serviceReal-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 security vulnerability was discovered in Gardener that could allow a user with administrative privileges for a Gardener project or a user with administrative privileges for a shoot cluster, including administrative privileges for a single namespace of the shoot cluster, to obtain control over the seed cluster where the shoot cluster is managed.
Am I Vulnerable?
This CVE affects all Gardener installations no matter of the public cloud provider(s) used for the seed clusters/shoot clusters.
Affected Components
gardener/external-dns-management
Affected Versions
- < 0.23.6
Fixed Versions
- >= 0.23.6
Important
The external-dns-management component may also be deployed on the seeds by the https://github.com/gardener/gardener-extension-shoot-dns-service extension when the extension is enabled. In this case, all versions of the shoot-dns-service extension <= v1.60.0 are affected by this vulnerability.
How do I mitigate this vulnerability?
Update to a fixed version.
Affected Packages
| Ecosystem | Package | Vulnerable range | Fix |
|---|---|---|---|
| 🐹Go | github.com/gardener/external-dns-management | all versions | 0.23.6 |
| 🐹Go | github.com/gardener/gardener-extension-shoot-dns-service | all versions | No fix |
Detection & mitigation playbook
Open-source dependencyDetect
Scan your dependency tree (package-lock.json, pnpm-lock.yaml, requirements.txt, go.sum, etc.) for github.com/gardener/external-dns-management. 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/gardener/external-dns-management to 0.23.6 or later, then make sure no transitive (indirect) dependency still pins the vulnerable range — O3 confirms GHSA-xwgg-m7fx-83wx 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-xwgg-m7fx-83wx 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-xwgg-m7fx-83wx. 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-xwgg-m7fx-83wx in your dependencies?
O3 detects GHSA-xwgg-m7fx-83wx across Go dependencies and uses function-level reachability to confirm whether the vulnerable code path is actually reachable — not just present. No false positives.