GHSA-xwgg-m7fx-83wx — external-dns-management
CRITICALGHSA-xwgg-m7fx-83wx is a critical-severity (CVSS 9.9) Improper Input Validation vulnerability in github.com/gardener/external-dns-management. A fix is available for github.com/gardener/external-dns-management — see the affected versions and patch details below.
Gardener External DNS Management allows malicious google credential in DNS secret to lead to privilege escalation
Exploitation Status
No confirmed exploitation observed yet
- A successful exploit gives an attacker total control of the affected component, not partial access.
- 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-xwgg-m7fx-83wx.
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-xwgg-m7fx-83wx 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 377,166 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
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 | 0.23.6go get github.com/gardener/external-dns-management@v0.23.6 |
| 🐹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, including transitive dependencies — a direct dependency you never call can still pull in a vulnerable version.
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 Security's impact-aware SCA analyses which vulnerable code paths your application actually calls, so a match like GHSA-xwgg-m7fx-83wx can be triaged on real exposure rather than presence alone.
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 Security finds GHSA-xwgg-m7fx-83wx across Go dependencies, including transitive ones, and its impact-aware SCA ranks findings by whether your code actually calls the vulnerable path.