CVE-2026-61549Woodpecker: Privilege escalation via unrestricted serviceAccountName in the Kubernetes backend
- 9.0CriticalCVSS base score
- 0.28%Exploitation in 30 daysEPSS · top 80% of all CVEs
- NoKnown exploitednot in CISA's KEV catalog
- NonePublic exploitsnone known yet
Description
Woodpecker is a CI/CD engine. From 1.0.0 until 3.16.0, pipeline/backend/kubernetes/backend_options.go defines backend_options.kubernetes.serviceAccountName, and the Kubernetes backend in pipeline/backend/kubernetes/pod.go copies that pipeline-step value directly into the pod specification without administrator authorization. Any user with Push permission on a connected repository can therefore run pipeline pods under an arbitrary ServiceAccount in the pipeline namespace and inherit that account's RBAC permissions. When a privileged ServiceAccount is reachable, the attacker can exfiltrate secrets such as database credentials, API keys, and TLS certificates and may take over the cluster. This issue is fixed in version 3.16.0.
Timeline
ID reserved
By GitHub_M
- 2 months later
· 2 months later
Published
- 1 day later
· 1 day 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) | 4.0 | Critical9.0 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H |
| NVDNVD · Awaiting Analysis | 4.0 | Critical9.0 | CVSS:4.0/AV:N/AC:L/AT:P/PR:L/UI:N/VC:H/VI:H/VA:H/SC:H/SI:H/SA:H/E:X/CR:X/IR:X/AR:X/MAV:X/MAC:X/MAT:X/MPR:X/MUI:X/MVC:X/MVI:X/MVA:X/MSC:X/MSI:X/MSA:X/S:X/AU:X/R:X/V:X/RE:X/U:X |
- EPSS (exploitation in 30 days)
- 0.28% · top 80% of all CVEs (14 Nov 2026)
- CISA SSVC
- Exploitation: none · Automatable: no · Technical impact: total
The list uses the assigner's score when there is one, then CISA's, then NVD's: Critical 9.0.
Affected products
- affected >= 1.0.0, < 3.16.0
Affected packages
From reviewed advisories of the GitHub Advisory Database.
- Gogithub.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpeckerGHSA-qf34-295c-26v8 (opens in a new tab)
- Gogo.woodpecker-ci.org/woodpecker/v2GHSA-qf34-295c-26v8 (opens in a new tab)
- Gogo.woodpecker-ci.org/woodpecker/v3GHSA-qf34-295c-26v8 (opens in a new tab)
References
References5
- https://github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/security/advisories/GHSA-qf34-295c-26v8 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_CONFIRM
- https://github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/pull/6792 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/commit/5df9d52260626c074c6caafb2dc83d3bc6b53be1 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/commit/609ba481b5e912f59aaae8ca7bc22b44523c5e37 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
- https://github.com/woodpecker-ci/woodpecker/releases/tag/v3.16.0 (opens in a new tab)x_refsource_MISC
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-2026-78774 (opens in a new tab)
- OSV.dev (opens in a new tab)
- GitHub Advisory GHSA-qf34-295c-26v8 (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-2026-61549)Record last updated .