CVE intelligence and bounded remediation

CVE-2023-23947 — Argo CD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes

Critical CVSS 9.1

Argo CD is a declarative, GitOps continuous delivery tool for Kubernetes. All Argo CD versions starting with 2.3.0-rc1 and prior to 2.3.17, 2.4.23 2.5.11, and 2.6.2 are vulnerable to an improper authorization bug which allows users who have the ability to update at least one cluster secret to update any cluster secret. The attacker could use this access to escalate privileges (potentially controlling Kubernetes resources) or to break Argo CD functionality (by preventing connections to external clusters). A patch for this vulnerability has been released in Argo CD versions 2.6.2, 2.5.11, 2.4.23, and 2.3.17. Two workarounds are available. Either modify the RBAC configuration to completely revoke all `clusters, update` access, or use the `destinations` and `clusterResourceWhitelist` fields to apply similar restrictions as the `namespaces` and `clusterResources` fields.

Severity
Critical
CVSS
9.1 (3.1)
Published
2023-02-16
CISA KEV
Not currently listed
Ecosystem
software/application
Weaknesses
CWE-863

Affected products

  • argoproj / argo_cd

Showing 1 representative product identities from 4 source matches. Confirm exact affected versions with the linked vendor and NVD evidence.

Matched remediation archetype

Authorization bypass, IDOR, and cross-tenant access

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

Check exposure

  • Map object and action authorization checks across API, UI, batch, import/export, and background-job paths.
  • Identify tenant, ownership, role, and policy boundaries for affected resources and administrative operations.
  • Use synthetic fixtures to compare intended access matrices without accessing another user's real data.

Remediate safely

  • Enforce server-side authorization at each resource access and state transition using the authenticated principal and trusted tenant context.
  • Scope data queries by tenant and ownership; treat client-supplied identifiers, roles, and policy claims as untrusted.
  • Add deny-by-default policy tests for horizontal and vertical access across every affected transport.

Authoritative sources

Complete CVE record and remediation plan

The detailed catalog view below loads this exact record, its source evidence, and the full seven-phase agentic change plan.