CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2021-3557 — A flaw was found in argocd

Medium CVSS 6.5

A flaw was found in argocd. Any unprivileged user is able to deploy argocd in their namespace and with the created ServiceAccount argocd-argocd-server, the unprivileged user is able to read all resources of the cluster including all secrets which might enable privilege escalations. The highest threat from this vulnerability is to data confidentiality.

Severity
Medium
CVSS
6.5 (3.1)
Published
2022-02-16
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-732

Affected products

  • argoproj / argo_cd
  • redhat / openshift_gitops / 1.1

Matched remediation archetype

Privilege escalation and unsafe privilege management

This catalog composition supplies bounded fallback guidance. Explicitly reviewed curated workflows load with the complete record below.

Check exposure

  • Map service accounts, operating-system identities, roles, capabilities, impersonation, set-user transitions, and administrative helper paths.
  • Determine whether untrusted users or lower-privilege processes can reach the affected transition or modify inputs it trusts.
  • Review file, socket, registry, device, job, container, and cloud-role permissions used before and after privilege changes.

Remediate safely

  • Apply the supported fix and redesign privileged operations as a minimal, authenticated, allowlisted interface.
  • Drop privileges before processing untrusted input, verify the drop succeeds, and remove unnecessary roles, capabilities, and write permissions.
  • Validate ownership and permissions at time of use and add explicit lower-to-higher privilege boundary tests.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

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