CVE-2026-50240: OpenShift Pipelines-as-Code (PAC) · Missing Authorization
Source GCVE Database
Not known to be exploited · CVSS 8.8 High.
Data as of 7 Nov 2026, 01:05 UTC
Thin evidence
One scorer or none| CNA (redhat) | CVSS 3.1 | 8.8 |
|---|
CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:H/I:H/A:HExploitation evidence
Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 6 Nov 2026
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponized: no evidence on record.
No public exploit code indexed in Metasploit or Exploit-DB
Exploited in the wildExploited: no evidence on record.
Not in CISA KEV and no source reports exploitation
Observed by OffSeq MirageSeen by Mirage: no evidence on record.
No attack traffic recorded by OffSeq Mirage sensors
A missing step is not evidence of safety. Sources: cve.org (opens in a new tab), the Metasploit, Exploit-DB and nuclei-templates index as of 6 Nov 2026.
What to do
Affected software
| Product | Affected | Fixed in |
|---|---|---|
| Builds for Red Hat OpenShiftopenshift-builds/openshift-builds-rhel9-operator | Affected– | Fixed in– |
| OpenShift Pipelinesopenshift-pipelines-client | Affected– | Fixed in– |
| OpenShift Pipelinesopenshift-pipelines/pipelines-cli-tkn-rhel8 | Affected– | Fixed in– |
| OpenShift Pipelinesopenshift-pipelines/pipelines-cli-tkn-rhel9 | Affected– | Fixed in– |
| OpenShift Pipelinesopenshift-pipelines/pipelines-opc-rhel9 | Affected– | Fixed in– |
| OpenShift Pipelinesopenshift-pipelines/pipelines-operator-proxy-rhel8 | Affected– | Fixed in– |
AI-suggested
Red Hat advises setting the 'legacyPipelineRbac' parameter to false in the TektonConfig custom resource. This disables the auto-provisioning of the 'openshift-pipelines-edit' RoleBinding that grants the pipeline ServiceAccount ClusterRole/edit permissions in every namespace. Simply deleting the RoleBinding is insufficient as the operator will recreate it unless 'legacyPipelineRbac' is set to false. Note that this mitigation may break existing pipelines relying on the pipeline ServiceAccount's edit permissions. Users should consult the Red Hat advisory for detailed instructions and assess impact before applying this change.
Description
A vulnerability in OpenShift Pipelines-as-Code (PAC) allows a namespace user with limited permissions to escalate privileges within that namespace. The flaw arises because PAC does not verify if the creator of a Repository custom resource is authorized to create PipelineRuns. This enables execution of attacker-controlled PipelineRuns with the pipeline ServiceAccount, which by default has ClusterRole/edit permissions. The result is namespace-scoped privilege escalation, allowing unauthorized reading of Secrets, resource manipulation, and potential supply chain injection in CI/CD namespaces.