CVE-2025-55191VulnerabilityPublished 30 Sep 2025Updated 6 Oct 2025

CVE-2025-55191: argoproj argo-cd · Race Condition

Affects argoproj argo-cdSource CVE Database V5

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.5 Medium · fixed in 2.14.20 : update argoproj argo-cd when convenient.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.5Medium

How severe the flaw is on the 0–10 CVSS scale.

EPSS: 0.4% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 41% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 2.14.20

CVSS:3.1/AV:N/AC:L/PR:L/UI:N/S:U/C:N/I:N/A:H

Attack Vector: Network
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: None
Scope: Unchanged
Confidentiality: None
Integrity: None
Availability: High

Bold values are the worst case: easiest to exploit or largest impact.

Attack Vector: Network: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack and the set of possible attackers extends beyond the other options listed, up to and including the entire Internet. Such a vulnerability is often termed 'remotely exploitable' and can be thought of as an attack being exploitable at the protocol level one or more network hops away (e.g., across one or more routers).
Attack Complexity: Low: Specialized access conditions or extenuating circumstances do not exist. An attacker can expect repeatable success against the vulnerable component.
Privileges Required: Low: The attacker is authorized with (i.e., requires) privileges that provide basic user capabilities that could normally affect only settings and files owned by a user. Alternatively, an attacker with Low privileges may have the ability to cause an impact only to non-sensitive resources.
User Interaction: None: The vulnerable system can be exploited without any interaction from any user.
Scope: Unchanged: An exploited vulnerability can only affect resources managed by the same security authority. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are either the same, or both are managed by the same security authority.
Confidentiality: None: There is no loss of confidentiality within the impacted component.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: High: There is total loss of availability, resulting in the attacker being able to fully deny access to resources in the impacted component; this loss is either sustained (while the attacker continues to deliver the attack) or persistent (the condition persists even after the attack has completed). Alternatively, the attacker has the ability to deny some availability, but the loss of availability presents a direct, serious consequence to the impacted component (e.g., the attacker cannot disrupt existing connections, but can prevent new connections; the attacker can repeatedly exploit a vulnerability that, in each instance of a successful attack, leaks a only small amount of memory, but after repeated exploitation causes a service to become completely unavailable).

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 30 Sep 2025
Detectable: no evidence on record.
No public nuclei template indexed
Weaponised: 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 2026-10-25.

Disclosed: The CVE record is public on cve.org. Its publication is t = 0.
Detectable: A public nuclei template can find exposed instances, for defenders and attackers alike.
Weaponised: Public exploit code exists in Metasploit or Exploit-DB, or CISA SSVC reports a public proof of concept.
Exploited in the wild: CISA KEV lists it, CISA SSVC rates exploitation active, or a source reports attacks.
Observed by OffSeq Mirage: OffSeq Mirage honeypot sensors recorded attack traffic for this CVE, or found exposed hosts without attack traffic.

Moments are spaced evenly, not to scale; a dashed line marks a gap of six months or more. Deltas count from t = 0. Sources that give only a date (CISA KEV, Exploit-DB, or a time of exactly 00:00Z) read “same day” rather than hours. Metasploit modules carry the flaw’s disclosure date, not their release date, and nuclei templates carry no date, so both appear above but not on the timeline.

What to do

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
argoproj argo-cd	Affected =3.2.0-rc1	Fixed in–

AI-suggested

To mitigate CVE-2025-55191, European organizations should immediately upgrade Argo CD to the fixed versions: 2.14.20 or later, 3.2.0-rc2 or later, 3.1.8 or later, and 3.0.19 or later depending on their current deployment. If immediate upgrading is not feasible, organizations should restrict API token permissions to the minimum necessary, especially limiting repository resource create, update, and delete actions to trusted users only. Implement strict monitoring and alerting on repository-related API calls to detect abnormal concurrent operations that could indicate exploitation attempts. Employ network segmentation and zero-trust principles to limit access to the Argo CD API server. Regularly audit API tokens and rotate credentials to reduce the risk of token compromise. Consider implementing rate limiting or concurrency controls at the API gateway or ingress level to mitigate rapid repeated triggering of the race condition. Finally, conduct thorough testing of Argo CD upgrades in staging environments to ensure compatibility and stability before production rollout.

Description

Argo CD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. Versions between 2.1.0 and 2.14.19, 3.2.0-rc1, 3.1.0-rc1 through 3.1.7, and 3.0.0-rc1 through 3.0.18 contain a race condition in the repository credentials handler that can cause the Argo CD server to panic and crash when concurrent operations are performed on the same repository URL. The vulnerability is located in numerous repository related handlers in the util/db/repository_secrets.go file. A valid API token with repositories resource permissions (create, update, or delete actions) is required to trigger the race condition. This vulnerability causes the entire Argo CD server to crash and become unavailable. Attackers can repeatedly and continuously trigger the race condition to maintain a denial-of-service state, disrupting all GitOps operations. This issue is fixed in versions 2.14.20, 3.2.0-rc2, 3.1.8 and 3.0.19.

Impact

For European organizations, the primary impact of CVE-2025-55191 is the disruption of continuous delivery pipelines using Argo CD, which can halt automated deployments and updates to Kubernetes clusters. This denial-of-service condition can affect development velocity, operational stability, and incident response capabilities, especially in environments relying heavily on GitOps for infrastructure and application lifecycle management. Organizations in sectors with stringent uptime requirements—such as finance, healthcare, telecommunications, and critical infrastructure—may face operational and compliance risks if deployments are interrupted. Additionally, the requirement for a valid API token means that insider threats or compromised credentials could be leveraged to exploit this vulnerability, emphasizing the need for strong access controls and monitoring. The inability to perform GitOps operations can delay security patches and updates, indirectly increasing exposure to other vulnerabilities. While the vulnerability does not impact confidentiality or integrity directly, the availability impact can cascade into broader operational risks. European entities using affected Argo CD versions should consider the potential for targeted DoS attacks, especially in multi-tenant or shared cluster environments.

CWE-362Concurrent Execution using Shared Resource with Improper Synchronization ('Race Condition') (opens in a new tab)
Class weaknessLikelihood of exploit: MediumOWASP Top 10 A06:2025: Insecure Design (opens in a new tab)
The product contains a concurrent code sequence that requires temporary, exclusive access to a shared resource, but a timing window exists in which the shared resource can be modified by another code sequence operating concurrently.
Architecture and Design
In languages that support it, use synchronization primitives. Only wrap these around critical code to minimize the impact on performance.
Architecture and Design
Use thread-safe capabilities such as the data access abstraction in Spring.
Architecture and Design
Minimize the usage of shared resources in order to remove as much complexity as possible from the control flow and to reduce the likelihood of unexpected conditions occurring.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Abuse Case (opens in a new tab)
Secure Design Principles (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V1.11.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Leveraging Time-of-Check and Time-of-Use (TOCTOU) Race Conditions (opens in a new tab)
Leveraging Race Conditions (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 8 Oct 2025, 03:40 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-362

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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