CVE-2022-29165Argo CD will blindly trust JWT claims if anonymous access is enabled
- 10.0CriticalCVSS base score
- 2.1%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 18% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
Argo CD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. A critical vulnerability has been discovered in Argo CD starting with version 1.4.0 and prior to versions 2.1.15, 2.2.9, and 2.3.4 which would allow unauthenticated users to impersonate as any Argo CD user or role, including the `admin` user, by sending a specifically crafted JSON Web Token (JWT) along with the request. In order for this vulnerability to be exploited, anonymous access to the Argo CD instance must have been enabled. In a default Argo CD installation, anonymous access is disabled. The vulnerability can be exploited to impersonate as any user or role, including the built-in `admin` account regardless of whether it is enabled or disabled. Also, the attacker does not need an account on the Argo CD instance in order to exploit this. If anonymous access to the instance is enabled, an attacker can escalate their privileges, effectively allowing them to gain the same privileges on the cluster as the Argo CD instance, which is cluster admin in a default installation. This will allow the attacker to create, manipulate and delete any resource on the cluster. They may also exfiltrate data by deploying malicious workloads with elevated privileges, thus bypassing any redaction of sensitive data otherwise enforced by the Argo CD API. A patch for this vulnerability has been released in Argo CD versions 2.3.4, 2.2.9, and 2.1.15. As a workaround, one may disable anonymous access, but upgrading to a patched version is preferable.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 37 days later
· 37 days later
Published
- 3 years later
· 3 years later
Record updated
Changes after publication (a new score, a public exploit, EPSS crossing 1, 10 or 50 %, leaving KEV) are kept since November 2026; earlier ones are not known.
Scores
| Scored by | CVSS | Score | Vector |
|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub_MCNA (assigner) | 3.1 | Critical10.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | Critical10.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:N/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 2.1% · top 18% of all CVEs (13 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: yes · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 10.0.
Affected products
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Gogithub.com/argoproj/argo-cdGHSA-r642-gv9p-2wjj (opens in a new tab)
- Gogithub.com/argoproj/argo-cd/v2GHSA-r642-gv9p-2wjj (opens in a new tab)
References
References4
- https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/releases/tag/v2.1.15 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/releases/tag/v2.2.9 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/releases/tag/v2.3.4 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_transferred
- https://github.com/argoproj/argo-cd/security/advisories/GHSA-r642-gv9p-2wjj (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
Sources
The same CVE in the primary databases and aggregators, to check against.
- CVE.org record (opens in a new tab)
- CVE List JSON (GitHub) (opens in a new tab)
- NVD (opens in a new tab)
- FIRST EPSS (opens in a new tab)
- EUVD EUVD-2022-5105 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-r642-gv9p-2wjj (opens in a new tab)
- CIRCL Vulnerability-Lookup (opens in a new tab)
Badge for a README or a ticket
[](https://cveledger.app/cve/CVE-2022-29165)Record last updated .