CVE-2026-23881VulnerabilityPublished 3 Feb 2026Updated 10 Sep 2026

CVE-2026-23881: Kyverno Denial of Service via Context Variable Amplification in Policy Engine

Affects kyvernoSource GCVE Database

Not known to be exploited : upgrade to 1.16.3 or 1.15.3 soon.

Data as of 25 Oct 2026, 19:02 UTC

Severity

High

Rated by Threat Radar · No CVSS score from NVD or the CNA

EPSS: 0.6% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 49% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 1.16.3, 1.15.3

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 3 Feb 2026
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

Upgrade kyverno to 1.16.3 or 1.15.3.

Patches and advisories

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
Bitnamikyverno`pkg:bitnami/kyverno`Other threats	Affected <1.15.3 >=1.16.0 <1.16.3	Fixed in 1.15.3 1.16.3

Check your own hosts for these packages with threat-finder (opens in a new tab), our free open-source scanner.

AI-suggested

Upgrade Kyverno to version 1.15.3 or later, or 1.16.3 or later, where the vulnerability is patched. No other mitigation is indicated or required according to the available data.

Description

Kyverno versions prior to 1.15.3 and versions from 1.16.0 up to but not including 1.16.3 contain a vulnerability in the policy engine that allows users with policy creation privileges to cause denial of service by crafting policies that exponentially amplify string data via context variables, leading to unbounded memory consumption. This issue is patched in versions 1.15.3 and 1.16.3.

References

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