CVE-2022-24905 is a medium-severity vulnerability affecting Argo CD, a popular declarative GitOps continuous delivery tool used for Kubernetes environments. The vulnerability arises from improper input validation (CWE-20) in the login screen when Single Sign-On (SSO) is enabled. Specifically, an attacker can craft a malicious URL containing a spoofed error message that will be displayed on the login screen. This spoofed message can mislead users by showing arbitrary text, although the vulnerability does not allow injection of active content such as JavaScript or clickable HTML elements, limiting the attacker's ability to execute code or perform phishing via embedded links. Exploitation requires the attacker to trick a victim into visiting the specially crafted URL. The vulnerability affects Argo CD versions prior to 2.1.15, versions from 2.2.0 up to but not including 2.2.9, and versions from 2.3.0 up to but not including 2.3.4. The Argo CD team has released patches in versions 2.1.15, 2.2.9, and 2.3.4 to address this issue. No known workarounds exist, and there are no known exploits in the wild at this time. The vulnerability does not require authentication to exploit, but it does require user interaction in the form of visiting a malicious URL. The impact is primarily related to user deception and potential social engineering, rather than direct compromise of system confidentiality, integrity, or availability.

For European organizations, the impact of this vulnerability is primarily reputational and operational rather than technical compromise. Argo CD is widely used in Kubernetes-based continuous delivery pipelines, especially in organizations adopting GitOps practices. The ability to spoof error messages on the login screen could be leveraged by attackers to confuse users, potentially facilitating phishing attacks or credential harvesting attempts if combined with other social engineering tactics. Although the vulnerability does not allow execution of malicious code or direct system compromise, it could undermine user trust in the authentication process, especially in environments where SSO is critical for access management. This could lead to increased risk of credential theft or unauthorized access if users are deceived into entering credentials on spoofed interfaces. Given the increasing adoption of Kubernetes and GitOps in European enterprises, particularly in sectors such as finance, manufacturing, and critical infrastructure, this vulnerability could be exploited as part of multi-stage attacks targeting these organizations. However, the lack of active content injection limits the severity of direct technical impact.

European organizations using Argo CD should immediately verify their deployed versions and upgrade to patched versions 2.1.15, 2.2.9, or 2.3.4 or later. Since no workarounds exist, patching is the primary mitigation. Additionally, organizations should: 1) Implement strict URL filtering and monitoring on web gateways to detect and block suspicious URLs that could be used to exploit this vulnerability. 2) Educate users, especially DevOps and platform teams, about the risk of spoofed error messages and the importance of verifying URLs before clicking, particularly in login contexts. 3) Enhance logging and monitoring of authentication attempts and error messages in Argo CD to detect unusual patterns that may indicate exploitation attempts. 4) Consider implementing multi-factor authentication (MFA) for Argo CD access to mitigate risks from credential theft resulting from social engineering. 5) Review and tighten SSO configurations to ensure robust validation and error handling. 6) Conduct phishing simulation exercises tailored to DevOps teams to raise awareness about social engineering risks related to this vulnerability.