CVE-2026-72526 is a critical security flaw in the multicloud-integrations component of Red Hat Advanced Cluster Management. The vulnerability arises because the Application propagation controller does not properly validate the ocm-managed-cluster annotation in Application Custom Resources. This lack of validation allows a tenant with permissions to create Applications on the hub cluster to redirect ManifestWorks to arbitrary managed spoke clusters. Consequently, this bypasses authorization controls and enables an attacker to cause ArgoCD on those clusters to synchronize malicious manifests, leading to arbitrary code execution or privilege escalation with cluster-admin privileges on the targeted spoke clusters. The flaw is categorized under CWE-441 (Unintended Proxy or Intermediary, 'Confused Deputy').

An attacker with low privileges (Application creation permissions) on the hub cluster can escalate privileges to cluster-admin on any connected spoke cluster. This enables arbitrary code execution and full control over the targeted managed clusters, severely compromising the managed environment's security and integrity.

According to the Red Hat advisory, no official fix or patch is currently available that meets their criteria for ease of use, applicability, and stability. Therefore, no direct remediation is presently provided. Users should monitor Red Hat advisories for updates. Until a fix is released, consider restricting tenant permissions to create Applications on the hub cluster to trusted users only and apply any available compensating controls to limit the impact.