CVE-2024-28236Insecure Variable Substitution in Vela
- 7.7HighCVSS base score
- 0.72%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 46% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
Vela is a Pipeline Automation (CI/CD) framework built on Linux container technology written in Golang. Vela pipelines can use variable substitution combined with insensitive fields like `parameters`, `image` and `entrypoint` to inject secrets into a plugin/image and — by using common substitution string manipulation — can bypass log masking and expose secrets without the use of the commands block. This unexpected behavior primarily impacts secrets restricted by the "no commands" option. This can lead to unintended use of the secret value, and increased risk of exposing the secret during image execution bypassing log masking. **To exploit this** the pipeline author must be supplying the secrets to a plugin that is designed in such a way that will print those parameters in logs. Plugin parameters are not designed for sensitive values and are often intentionally printed throughout execution for informational/debugging purposes. Parameters should therefore be treated as insensitive. While Vela provides secrets masking, secrets exposure is not entirely solved by the masking process. A docker image (plugin) can easily expose secrets if they are not handled properly, or altered in some way. There is a responsibility on the end-user to understand how values injected into a plugin are used. This is a risk that exists for many CICD systems (like GitHub Actions) that handle sensitive runtime variables. Rather, the greater risk is that users who restrict a secret to the "no commands" option and use image restriction can still have their secret value exposed via substitution tinkering, which turns the image and command restrictions into a false sense of security. This issue has been addressed in version 0.23.2. Users are advised to upgrade. Users unable to upgrade should not provide sensitive values to plugins that can potentially expose them, especially in `parameters` that are not intended to be used for sensitive values, ensure plugins (especially those that utilize shared secrets) follow best practices to avoid logging parameters that are expected to be sensitive, minimize secrets with `pull_request` events enabled, as this allows users to change pipeline configurations and pull in secrets to steps not typically part of the CI process, make use of the build approval setting, restricting builds from untrusted users, and limit use of shared secrets, as they are less restrictive to access by nature.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 5 days later
· 5 days later
Published
- 5 months later
· 5 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 | High7.7 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:C/C:H/I:N/A:N |
| NVDNVD · Analyzed | 3.1 | Medium6.5 | CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:N/A:N |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.72% · top 46% of all CVEs (14 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: High 7.7.
Affected products
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Gogithub.com/go-vela/workerGHSA-pwx5-6wxg-px5h (opens in a new tab)
References
References2
- https://github.com/go-vela/worker/security/advisories/GHSA-pwx5-6wxg-px5h (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRMx_transferred
- https://github.com/go-vela/worker/commit/e1572743b008e4fbce31ebb1dcd23bf6a1a30297 (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-2024-0985 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-pwx5-6wxg-px5h (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-2024-28236)Record last updated .