CVE-2026-7163VulnerabilityPublished 19 May 2026Updated 30 Oct 2026

Red Hat Security Advisory: Assisted Installer RHEL 9 components for Multicluster Engine for Kubernetes 2.9.4

Affects Red HatSource GCVE Database

Authoritative record:CVE-2026-7163· Medium 6.1

Not known to be exploited · CVSS 6.1 Medium · fixed in Red Hat package updates : update Red Hat assisted-service when convenient.

Data as of 30 Oct 2026, 11:52 UTC

CVSS 3.1 base score

6.1Medium

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

EPSS: 0.1% chance of exploitation in 30 days – higher than 9% of CVEsExploit Prediction Scoring System: the likelihood attackers will use this flaw soon.
Patch: Available – fixed in 2.11.1, 2.10.2, 2.9.4 +1

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

Attack Vector: Adjacent
Attack Complexity: Low
Privileges Required: Low
User Interaction: Required
Scope: Changed
Confidentiality: High
Integrity: None
Availability: None

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

Attack Vector: Adjacent: The vulnerable component is bound to the network stack, but the attack is limited at the protocol level to a logically adjacent topology. This can mean an attack must be launched from the same shared physical (e.g., Bluetooth or IEEE 802.11) or logical (e.g., local IP subnet) network, or from within a secure or otherwise limited administrative domain (e.g., MPLS, secure VPN to an administrative network zone).
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: Required: Successful exploitation of this vulnerability requires a user to take some action before the vulnerability can be exploited.
Scope: Changed: An exploited vulnerability can affect resources beyond the security scope managed by the security authority of the vulnerable component. In this case, the vulnerable component and the impacted component are different and managed by different security authorities.
Confidentiality: High: There is total loss of confidentiality, resulting in all resources within the impacted component being divulged to the attacker. Alternatively, access to only some restricted information is obtained, but the disclosed information presents a direct, serious impact.
Integrity: None: There is no loss of integrity within the impacted component.
Availability: None: There is no impact to availability within the impacted component.

Definitions: FIRST CVSS v3.1 specification.

Exploitation evidence

Disclosed: evidence found.
CVE published 30 Apr 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 30 Oct 2026.

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.
Weaponized: A Metasploit exploit module or Exploit-DB entry exists (Metasploit scanner modules do not count), or CISA SSVC or the CVSS exploit maturity 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 assisted-service to 2.11.1, 2.10.2, 2.9.4 or 2.7.10.

Affected software

Product	Affected	Fixed in
GitHubassisted-service`pkg:github/assisted-service`Other threats	Affected >=2.7.0 <2.7.10 >=2.9.0 <2.9.4 >=2.10.0 <2.10.2 >=2.11.0 <2.11.1	Fixed in 2.7.10 2.9.4 2.10.2 2.11.1
Red Hatredhat/multicluster-engine`pkg:rpm/redhat/multicluster-engine`Other threats	Affected =2.10	Fixed in–

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

AI-suggested

If you cannot patch yet, users should restrict access rights to InfraEnv objects to trusted users only, minimizing the risk of unauthorized JWT token exposure.

Description

Assisted Installer RHEL 9 integrates components for the general multicluster engine for Kubernetes 2.9.4 release that simplify the process of deploying OpenShift Container Platform clusters. The multicluster engine for Kubernetes provides the foundational components that are necessary for the centralized management of multiple Kubernetes-based clusters across data centers, public clouds, and private clouds. You can use the engine to create new Red Hat OpenShift Container Platform clusters, or to import existing Kubernetes-based clusters for management. After the clusters are managed, you can use the APIs that are provided by the engine to distribute configuration based on placement policy.

Impact

An authenticated user with minimal namespace-scoped privileges can escalate their privileges to obtain administrative credentials for any cluster managed by the Multicluster Engine hub. This compromises cluster confidentiality by exposing kubeadmin passwords and kubeconfig files, potentially allowing full administrative control over those clusters. The vulnerability does not affect availability or integrity directly but poses a significant confidentiality risk.

Summary

The vulnerability exists in the assisted-service REST API of the Multicluster Engine (MCE) for Kubernetes, specifically in the local authentication mode used in on-premises deployments. The local authenticator grants full administrative access to any request with a valid JWT token, which is embedded in plaintext as a query parameter in InfraEnvStatus.ISODownloadURL. Since any user with get rights on an InfraEnv object in their namespace can read this URL, they can extract the JWT and use it to access administrative credentials (kubeadmin password) for arbitrary clusters provisioned through the hub. This flaw allows privilege escalation from minimal namespace-scoped privileges to cluster administrative access.

CWE-312Cleartext Storage of Sensitive Information (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessOWASP Top 10 A06:2025: Insecure Design (opens in a new tab)
The product stores sensitive information in cleartext within a resource that might be accessible to another control sphere.
Implementation · System Configuration · Operation
When storing data in the cloud (e.g., S3 buckets, Azure blobs, Google Cloud Storage, etc.), use the provider's controls to encrypt the data at rest.
Implementation · System Configuration · Operation
In some systems/environments such as cloud, the use of "double encryption" (at both the software and hardware layer) might be required, and the developer might be solely responsible for both layers, instead of shared responsibility with the administrator of the broader system/environment.
OWASP Cheat Sheets
Secure Design Principles (opens in a new tab)
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.1.6 (opens in a new tab)
V8.2.3 (opens in a new tab)
V8.2.2 (opens in a new tab)
Attack patterns
Retrieve Embedded Sensitive Data (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).
CWE-551Incorrect Behavior Order: Authorization Before Parsing and Canonicalization (opens in a new tab)
Base weakness
If a web server does not fully parse requested URLs before it examines them for authorization, it may be possible for an attacker to bypass authorization protection.
Architecture and Design
URL Inputs should be decoded and canonicalized to the application's current internal representation before being validated and processed for authorization. Make sure that your application does not decode the same input twice.
OWASP ASVS 4.0.3
V8.3.8 (opens in a new tab)
V13.4.2 (opens in a new tab)
V7.2.2 (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).
CWE-131Incorrect Calculation of Buffer Size (opens in a new tab)
Base weaknessLikelihood of exploit: High
The product does not correctly calculate the size to be used when allocating a buffer.
Implementation
When allocating a buffer for the purpose of transforming, converting, or encoding an input, allocate enough memory to handle the largest possible encoding. For example, in a routine that converts "&" characters to "&" for HTML entity encoding, the output buffer needs to be at least 5 times as large as the input…
Implementation
Understand the programming language's underlying representation and how it interacts with numeric calculation (CWE-681). Pay close attention to byte size discrepancies, precision, signed/unsigned distinctions, truncation, conversion and casting between types, "not-a-number" calculations, and how the language handles…
Implementation · Input Validation
Perform input validation on any numeric input by ensuring that it is within the expected range. Enforce that the input meets both the minimum and maximum requirements for the expected range.
Attack patterns
Overflow Buffers (opens in a new tab)
Buffer Overflow via Parameter Expansion (opens in a new tab)
From MITRE CWE, MITRE CAPEC and OWASP (Top 10, OpenCRE).

References

Community reviews

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Exploitation evidence

What to do

Affected software

Description

AI analysisMachine-generated, updated 17 Aug 2026, 18:26 UTC

WeaknessesCWE-312, CWE-551, CWE-131

Technical details

References

Community reviews

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