CVE-2023-23939Azure/setup-kubectl: Escalation of privilege vulnerability for v3 and lower
- 3.9LowCVSS base score
- 0.36%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 70% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
Azure/setup-kubectl is a GitHub Action for installing Kubectl. This vulnerability only impacts versions before version 3. An insecure temporary creation of a file allows other actors on the Actions runner to replace the Kubectl binary created by this action because it is world writable. This Kubectl tool installer runs `fs.chmodSync(kubectlPath, 777)` to set permissions on the Kubectl binary, however, this allows any local user to replace the Kubectl binary. This allows privilege escalation to the user that can also run kubectl, most likely root. This attack is only possible if an attacker somehow breached the GitHub actions runner or if a user is utilizing an Action that maliciously executes this attack. This has been fixed and released in all versions `v3` and later. 775 permissions are used instead. Users are advised to upgrade. There are no known workarounds for this issue.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 46 days later
· 46 days later
Published
- 24 months later
· 24 months 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 | Low3.9 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:H/UI:N/S:U/C:L/I:L/A:L |
| NVDNVD · Modified | 3.1 | High7.0 | CVSS:3.1/AV:L/AC:H/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:H |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.36% · top 70% of all CVEs (12 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: partial
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Low 3.9.
Affected products
- affected < 3
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- GitHub ActionsAzure/setup-kubectlGHSA-p756-rfxh-x63h (opens in a new tab)
References
References2
- https://github.com/Azure/setup-kubectl/security/advisories/GHSA-p756-rfxh-x63h (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/Azure/setup-kubectl/commit/d449d75495d2b9d1463555bb00ca3dca77a42ab6 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISCx_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-2023-1065 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-p756-rfxh-x63h (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-2023-23939)Record last updated .